The Ministry of Trade and Industry has announced measures to set up a policy that will improve the packaging of locally produced food items.
According to the ministry, the initiative will aid the implementation of the Planting for Food and Jobs policy as well as the One-District One-Factory project to preserve and package food for local consumption and export.
Speaking to Citi Business News on the issue, the Director, in charge of Value Chain and Logistics at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Mr. Papa Bartels was optimistic the policy will help Ghanaian exporters to be competitive on the international market.
“The bane of our development has a lot to do with marketing. For instance the current government is pushing at developing effective export programs and if you want to export, packaging is key because if you send any product that has a wishy-washy packaging it sometimes will be rejected from the export end,” he said.
Stressing on the need to enhance packaging, Mr. Bartels maintained that it is the only way Ghana can get competitive on the global market.
“We have cases where labeling on the package is bad so it gets to that end and then it is rejected,” he recounted, adding that it will also create a favourable image for Ghana.
Touching on government’s one district one factory initiative, Mr. Bartels said a good packaging system will help in selling some the products that will be produced in Ghana abroad.
“So even for the one-district one-factory to be effective we must ensure that we have very effective packaging then a lot of what we produce locally would sell well on the international market”.
He spoke to Citi Business News at the sidelines of work shop organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO) of the United Nations(UN) under the theme ‘Improving Food Packaging for Small and Medium Agro Enterprises in Sub-Saharan Africa’.
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By: Anita Arthur/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
