The Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA), says it will increase export of coconut to improve revenue for non- traditional export.
Already, GEPA has supplied 160,000 coconut seedlings to Coconut Farmers in the country to increase coconut production within the next five years.
Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Export Promotion Authority, Afua Asabea Asare, in an interview with Citi Business News said they will work to increase export of coconut to meet demand, while creating more jobs and increasing foreign earnings from the crop.
“We are not doing as well as we wish we would do, and so to do that, with export we stay and wait for everything to be sorted then they bring it to us to look for the market and we decided no; we are not even getting what the world is demanding so we should go back to the roots and see what is actually happening. What is causing this? I am not the Minister of Agric, I am not supposed to be giving out seedlings. The Ministry is doing its bit and we decided that we also need to support because the demand is so high and that’s why you see me also going to that level to help with good seedlings and all of that so that quickly, I can get what I can take to the international market. So we are just supporting what the Ministry is doing already” she explained.
Ghana is seeking to rake in 2 billion dollars from the export of coconut by 2023.
Already, GEPA has distributed 100,000 coconut seedlings to farmers in the Western and Central regions.
The President of the Coconut Farmers Association of Ghana, Patrick Ndabiah, says the Association will soon come out with a price mechanism to help improve revenue to coconut farmers.
Currently, though the projected global growth in the coconut industry is pegged at US$15 billion by 2024, the production level in Ghana is 224 million coconut fruits annually, and 179 million of the total production is produced by small holder farmers.
