Sunyani-Ghana Nov. 10, GNA – Mr Anthony Botchway, the Chief Executive Officer of Bomarts Company and the Chairman of National Mango Association has called for improvement in mango yields to enhance its market access and price reduction.
He said the global average production was about 20 metric tons per hectare, but in Ghana farms were producing around 2.5, five and 10 metric tons per hectare which he said, “is very low”.
Mr Botchway explained that farmers always demanded high prices which cut out a big chunk of the market for them, because most of the processors were into juice production.
But in the Ghanaian market consumer patronage of locally-produced fruit juice “is low”, despite “the low price”, hence processors were unable to patronise the produce of the farmers, he added.
Mr Botchway made the call when speaking to the media in an interview at the opening of a two-day mango value chain stakeholder training focused on the future of mango farming and how economical and sustainable solutions could be identified to address the sector’s current challenges on Wednesday in Sunyani.
It was organised by Fidelity Bank in partnership with eco.business Fund and attended by 70 participants that comprised processors, exporters, producers, input dealers and industry consultants from across the country.
Mr Botchway expressed concern about farmers’ low knowledge of mango cultivation, saying a lot of the farmers went into farming because seedlings were available, and they collected without knowing the problems they would encounter.
He said solutions were readily available but because of ignorance most farmers were not able to solve those problems.
Mr Botchway said the Association as part of its effort to address those challenges had drawn a programme to educate the farmers at the grassroots to be able to solve them as and when necessary in their farms.
Earlier in an address, Mr Samuel Yeboah, the Deputy Chief Operations Officer at Ghana Incentive-Based Risk-Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (GIRSAL) said from 2019 till date over GhC700 million amount of loans had been provided to 99 agribusinesses through 14 financial institutions across the country.
He added there was the intention to increase the lending to attain greater impact by agriculture businesses in the county.
Mr. Yeboah announced GIRSAL as part of its five-year strategic plan had decided to focus on some value chains with mango as one of those chains because it was one of the commodities that could help the country to generate enough foreign exchange.
