Fruit, vegetable fair opens in Accra
A three-day fruit and vegetable fair opened yesterday at the Efua Sutherland Children’s Park in Accra, offering a platform for horticulture sector actors to exhibit their products and services.
The 2021 Fruit and Vegetable Fair, expected to help to create market opportunities and visibility for these businesses, is being organised by HortiFresh West Africa and the Chamber of Agribusiness Ghana (CAG).
Advertisement
More than 80 exhibitors from the fruit and vegetable value chain, including suppliers, producers and processors are participating to showcase their products and services.
The exhibitors include Bubune Natural Skincare, Senam Foods, Bon Agro Company, Fruit Master, AB Farms, Tacks Farms Limited, Arukah Foods and ACE COP Farms Limited.
Game changer
Opening the fair yesterday, the Director in charge of Crop Services at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Mr. Seth Osei Akoto, said the fruit and vegetable sub-sector had been a game-changer in the economies of countries that had got it right.
“We must also get it right through joint efforts and more collaboration from private sector investment and policy direction from the government.
“As a nation, we need a better understanding of the dynamics of the fruits and vegetable markets, which keep growing,” he said.
He added that the MoFA was working to further improve the fruits and vegetables sub-sector.
Important contribution
The Deputy Head of Mission of the Embassy of the Netherlands, Ms. Katja Lasseur, said over the years, the horticulture sector in Ghana has seen an appreciable growth with a potential for even further growth.
She said the Netherlands made an important contribution to this growth and that apart from export opportunities, a very promising part of the growth was the high-end segment of the domestic vegetable market.
Ms. Lasseur said the sub-sector’s overall turnover had doubled in only three years from $5 million in 2014 to more than $11 million in 2017.
The Programme Manager of HortiFresh West Africa, Mrs. Sheila Assibey-Yeboah, said the collaboration with the CAG in the organisation of the fair was to drive the continuity of the annual event after the closure of the HortiFresh programme.