Monday, July 13, 2009

Investors urged to exploit Papaya

There is the need for investors to exploit papaya fruit production to boost the country’s foreign exchange earnings, Anthony Sikpa, President of the Federation of Association of Ghanaian Exporters has said.

“There is no reason why papaya’s potential cannot be exploited to a greater extent for boosting the agricultural economy in Ghana. This will immensely assist in raising the income of poor farmers. Many tropical countries have successfully exploited this fruit as a commercial crop and have brought a reasonable income to the poor farmer,” he emphasised.

Mr. Sikpa, making a presentation at a stakeholders’ forum in Accra, explained that although the country has a good climatic conditions to grow papaya on a large scale, the sector has not been well exploited.

The country has only managed to register a marginal presence in the international market which has a huge demand for papaya, especially those from Africa.

“In 2008, for example, the 15 core member-states of the European Union imported 35,750 metric tonnes of papaya worth 53 million euro. Out of this, Ghana papaya amounted to 1,061 metric tonnes, representing a market share of only 3 percent,” he said.

Currently, Brazil, Ecuador and Cote d’ Ivoire - with Ghana being the fourth - are the major exporters of papaya, with markets in European Union, Canada, United States of America, Singapore,Hong Kong and Japan.

Mr. Sikpa indicated that although the horticultural sector has seen an appreciable level of investments lately, the papaya sector has not received much attention.

He explained that efforts were made in 2006 to boost the cultivation of papaya with the introduction of the Golden papaya variety, which had shown great potential for increasing returns on investment.

The Trade and Investment Programme for a Competitive Export Economy (TIPCEE) has assisted a number of papaya producers to conduct successful demonstrations of Golden and Solo papaya fields, employing various interventions along the supply chain.

“Opportunities exist for investment in large-scale production for fresh and processed papaya, for both the export and local markets,” he said.

Mr. Lemuel Mantey, a representative from the smallholder farmers, described investment in papaya production as very rewarding as it requires low production costs.

He cited the high cost of irrigation facilities, penetrating the local market, and high cost of Global GAP Certification as major challenges confronting the papaya industry, especially for the smallholder farmer.

Mr. Roland Adade, Market Access Team Leader, TIPCEE, stated that the local papaya market has the potential of outstripping produce from major exporters such as Brazil as the Ghanaian papaya tastes better.

“We need to brand the Ghanaian papaya to give us a unique opportunity in the international market.
“There is need for stakeholders in the sector to improve on harvesting and packaging papaya for the international market.” Mr. Adade said.

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