Agrofood exhibitors to hold conference in Accra

Exhibitors in agrofood, plastprintpack and packaging will converge in Accra for the 7th edition of trade exhibitions and conferences.

The three-day programme scheduled for November 29 to December 1 this year will attract about 3,000 patrons, mostly high-end businesses and Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (SMEs), both international and local, to showcase their products and services.

The German trade show specialists, Fairtrade, will bring together experts, producers and industry leaders from eight European countries, the United States, South Africa and some neighbouring West African countries.

They will discuss latest technologies that will create valuable synergies for exhibitors and producers in crop and animal production, food, beverage and packaging technology and plastic raw materials.

The Managing Director of Fairtrade, Paul Marz, said the trade exhibition would be marked with a strong presence of local Ghanaian and international market leaders.

“We have companies which will come up with coaching solutions. And these are real solutions to real problems that we have currently and where I think we need to upgrade,” he stated.

Market

The Deputy Director of Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate (PPRSD) at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Eric Bentsil Quaye, said within the agrifood West Africa programme, there were certain policies that were of importance to the ministry.

He noted that the implementation of the agricultural flagship campaign, Planting for Food and Jobs, was a holistic tool of the ministry to ensure that agriculture did not remain with SMEs but also actors within the value chain.

Mr Quaye explained that it was in their interest that “when we improve production of crops then we should also be able to market them”.

He noted that the ministry was looking forward to the conference because it had produced good quantities of quality food that needed to be processed further.

He also said 30 to 40 per cent of most foods were going to waste, adding that the ministry sought to redeem that by supporting such exhibitions that could process the country’s food, put them in appropriate containers, well labelled and able to withstand transport and other weather issues.

“Our promise to this meeting is that the ministry will continue to support the activities for the 7th edition and even beyond so that farmers can have access to materials that can help them save their food and market them appropriately,” he added.