Ghana’s pineapple industry collapsing

Pineapple exporters have been chided by government for contributing to the collapse of fruit processing factories in the country.

Minister for Agriculture, Kwesi Ahwoi, said though Ghana has the capacity to process its raw produce, Ghanaian farmers have not made enough inputs into developing the manufacturing sector.
This, he said, has rendered many factories idle.

Mr. Ahwoi was reacting to reports of an imminent collapse of Ghana’s pineapple exporting industry following the rejection of the Smooth Cayenne variety produced by Ghanaian farmers.

More than half of pineapple exporters in the country are reported to have gone bankrupt and abandoned the sector as a result of this.

However, sector minister Kwesi Ahwoi told Citi Business adding more value to their produce is the solution to the problem as a permanent market preference for a particular variety is not likely.

He explained, “We can produce that pineapple, process it here, for us to eat, drink the juice and so on. The market changed from Smooth Cayenne to MD2, so all of them moved into the MD2.
The market is changing again but there are huge factories here in Ghana idle.
Fruit processing factories, huge capacitors sitting idle because they are not getting input from the farmers.

“Farmers want to export fresh fruits when we can add value to it and they can earn more that way and they are assured of regular buying. A factory will take your produce everyday because they produce 24 hours around the clock. So really, I think we will have to look at the relationship between the factory establishments and the output from the farmers.”—Citifmonline