The Deputy General Secretary of General Agricultural Workers’ Union (GAWU), Edward Kareweh is calling on Ghanaian farmers to concentrate on adding value to their products for domestic use rather than exporting.
His call comes on the back of an European Union (EU) temporary ban on exports of vegetables from Ghana to their region.
The ban was put in place after EU authorities identified some vegetables from Ghana which did not meet their quality standards.
This is not the first time Ghanaian farmers and exporters have had to face this setback having failed to meet set benchmarks.
Some months ago, mangoes from Ghana was also banned because of fly infestation.
Speaking to Citi Business News, Edward Kareweh said farmers and government must focus on turning raw materials into finished goods for the domestic market rather than the international market which has too many benchmarks to meet.
“Even if our internal challenges are resolved it will not still guarantee us the EU market. We have to increase the domestic processing capacity of country so we can process and store more of what we produce to be reuse later because international trade is not fair, it is only competitive coupled with unfair practices,” he explained.
By: Norvan Acquah-Hayford/citifmonline.com/Ghana