Participants during the closing meeting of the project
Due to the presence of harmful organisms, a project to combat the influx of vegetables from Ghana to the European Union has yielded results.
In particular, interventions in 2014 led to a reduction in the concentration of harmful organisms in the top 330 exports to the EU.
The project, dubbed “Strengthening Ghana’s Fruit and Vegetation Sector” to increase exports to the European Union, was in response to challenges in horticulture.
The project is being co-sponsored by CABI International Agricultural Biology (CPR), the Directorate of Plant Protection and Control Services (PPRSD), the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), the Association of Ghanaian Exporters (GAVEX), and Quarcoo Initiatives. Company Limited (Quin Organics) and Eosta Beavi aim to improve the pituitary system, public-private partnership (PPP) and increase market access.
Funded for Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Food Security (FDOV) in the Netherlands facility.
The overall objective of the project was to develop fruit and vegetable systems, good agricultural practices, proper business, infrastructure construction, compliance with international standards and knowledge sharing for value chain actors by exporting fruit and vegetable products from Ghana to the European Union.
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Some successes
At the closing ceremony of the project in Accra, stakeholders reaffirmed the contribution of the project by reversing the trend of major intervention and restoring farmers’ hopes.
On key achievements, CABI’s project manager, Walter Heavy, said the project has worked with the entire supply chain to establish an effective plant health system supported by protocols and standard procedures. Introduce good agricultural practices in the horticultural sector and in the horticultural chain.
To promote fair trade-based production standards, implementation of management systems, availability of certification technical support, infrastructure infrastructure, inspection, packaging and storage and communications, as well as from Queen Organis in Ghana to the Netherlands to EOSTA BV Certified Citrus Product New Supply Chain Development
“Interventions have provided training materials to enhance the education of producers, exporters and youth, PPRSD inspectors and others,” he said.
There were also trainings on GSPs, including 1,565 horticulturalists, exporters, PPRSD monitors, agricultural extension agents, neutral insect pests (FCM, whitefly, fruit flies, thrips, EFSB, Fall armyworm management and plant hygiene). He did.
The project also helped GlobalGap acquire a certificate and three other companies in the Global Gap document.
In pest control and monitoring, the project developed a variety of insect traps, delta traps and permeability, developed traps for specific quarantine insect pests in the field, trained 52 GAVEX technicians, selected PPRSD staff – selected gardeners from Ghana University, Quarantine pest control, data collection, surveying techniques, data analysis and reporting.
According to Mr. Heavy, he has purchased a variety of laboratory equipment for the PPRSD Laboratory in Pokémon to assist in the testing of pests and diseases in the laboratory and data collection in the PBSS Pest and Disease Test.
It also helped develop PPRSD testing protocols and standard procedures.
“These partnerships led to the lifting of the European Commission’s 2015 sanctions, which were lifted in January 2018,” he said.
Based on a 50 percent donation from interested GAVEX members, the project renovated and built packaging facilities.
So far, four packaging facilities are undergoing refurbishment, and there are currently five packing facilities under construction.
CABI’s West Africa Regional Coordinator, Dr. Victor Attukuaye Clotte, urged various stakeholders to use their experiences to increase the success of other projects.
Background
The project was implemented in a multi-stakeholder approach involving government, commercial farmers, exporters and Dutch importers to overcome some challenges in the horticulture sector.
Ghana’s drowning in the European market from 2011 to 2015 It rose from 82 to a maximum of 291 in 2015. There were 330 major interventions in 2014.
During this time, Ghanaian vegetables were exported. In 2012, it dropped more than 4,000 tons from $ 2.5 million to less than $ 1,000,000 to $ 1,000,000.
At the 2015 European Commission (EC), it decided to suspend five plant products from Ghana to the European Union until the end of December 2016.
The five banned vegetables were peppercorns, loofah, bitter gourd, eggplant and squash, and the main pests seized between 2012 and 2015 were fruit flies, fake cold moths, and white flies.
A follow-up audit was conducted in September 2016, and the ban was renewed by the EC for one year until December 2017.
It is estimated that Ghana lost $ 36 million between 2015 and 2017 as a result of the ban.
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