Farmers Urged To Increase Production Of Pineapple And Papaya

Mr Gideon Kwame Boye Quarcoo, Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA), has urged pineapple growers to continue to cultivate more of the sugarloaf and papaya for export. He said this would help the country to earn foreign exchange for development and also alleviate poverty of the farmers. Mr Quarcoo gave the advice in an address at a workshop for about hundred pineapple farmers at Attahkrom Amanfrom, near Aburi in the Akuapem South District in the Eastern Region. He said the GEPA has more plans to help farmers to expand their farms and asked other farmers to join the pineapple farmers association in order to increase the production of the products for export. Mr Frank Dan Enyimaye, Senior Export Development and Promotion Officer of the Export Trade, Agricultural and Industrial Development Fund (EDAIF) called on individual farmers to belong to the pineapple association so as to benefit from the EDAIF loan facility. Mr Yusif Musah Idrisah, Crops Production Officer of Nsawam-Adoagyiri Municipality advised farmers to take the education of agriculture extension officers serious to produce the right variety of products that meet exportation standards. Mr Edward K.A. Mensah, Executive Director of Integrity International Cargo Limited, exporting company in Accra, said the GEPA was exploring market opportunities for sugarloaf pineapple variety in the Middle East, USA, North Africa, Commonwealth of the Independent States and Europe. He said as a result, GEPA was re-organising existing sugarloaf pineapple and papaya out-growers in Nsawam and Aburi areas to increase output while educating them to improve the export quality of the two products. The papaya and sugarloaf pineapple are either organic or conventional, Mr Mensah explained. The participants of the workshop and facilitors later inspected some pineapple farms at Attahkrom Amanfrom, Oboadaka and a storage house at Mariakrom.