Citi Business News has learnt that Ghana is likely to resume the export of vegetables to the European Union, (EU) by the end of this year.
This follows efforts to improve the quality of produce exported from Ghana to meet EU standards.
The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), last year, put a partial ban on the export of the produce to the EU, due to the non compliance of best practices by some vegetables growers in the country.
The move was to enable the Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate (PPRSD) of the Agric Ministry, streamline the activities of farmers and exporters to ensure conformity with required standards of the European Market.
The Director of PPRSD of the Agric Ministry, Milly Ezeria Boamah revealed the country’s preparedness for export to Citi Business News on the sidelines of the commissioning of a laboratory of the regulatory services directorate.
“We didn’t have facilities for inspection as such we had to do so in the open … we have put up a diagnostic laboratory and we are working to train our farmers on good agricultural practices so that they will not have these issues of pests for their products to be rejected,” she stated.
Milly Boamah added,”We have put in mechanisms to regulate the work of the exporters by tracking the source of their produce. We are able to confirm their acreage among others; we are certain that we will be able to complete the process before December this year.”
MOFA clamps down on ‘illegal’ exporters
Meanwhile the Ministry of Food and Agriculture says it is collaborating with the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), to clamp down on farmers who continue to flout the regulations on producing standard products for the European market.
According to the Ministry, some offenders have been identified to have short-circuited the system by re-registering their companies.
Commenting on the joint operation, Milly Ezeria Boamah told Citi Business News perpetrators will not go unpunished,
“What we have realized of late is that some people are faking their products, we have a system to confirm the products when they are rejected by the EU … we have had some issues that we have handed them over to the BNI to investigate. We are catching up with them and once they are caught, the law will deal with them,” she stressed.
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By: Kojo Agyeman/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
