More than 350 companies to exhibit at Ghana’s 3rd Food and Agric Show
A record number of over three hundred and fifty (350) local and international exhibitors have registered to showcase their latest agricultural technologies and innovations at this year’s Food and Agric Show in Ghana dubbed FAGRO 2011.
The unprecedented number, according to the organizers, represents a 70% increase over the number of exhibitors who participated in last year’s show held at the International Trade Fair Centre, Accra in October 2010.
This year’s show is slated to take place from October 7 to October 16 at the Efua Sutherland Children’s Park in Accra under the theme “Beginning with the End in Mind – the Value Chain Process”.
According to the Head of Retail Banking of the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) and Chairman of the FAGRO 2011 Planning Committee, Mr. Adam Sulley, the exhibitors made up of farmers, food producers, traders, manufacturers, producers, policy makers, scientists, agriculturalists and other stakeholders are drawn from Ghana, China, Spain, USA, Burkina Faso, Israel and Brazil among others.
Mr. Sulley noted that the continuing increase in the number of exhibitors for FAGRO every year is a manifestation of the trust and critical role the show is playing in spearheading the transformational process of the country’s agricultural sector into a highly commercial state.
“The vast increase in the number of exhibitors for FAGRO 2011 emphasises that the show has become an important event on the agricultural calendar of the country, since it is a fair which has long been awaited by farmers and stakeholders in the agricultural sector”, he stressed.
He said FAGRO is currently the sole fair which “has in three years running provided a common platform for farmers and stakeholders in the agricultural industry to interact, share ideas, raise concerns and offer solutions to the myriads of problems facing the industry”.
The FAGRO 2011 Planning Committee Chairman emphasised that this year’s show is focusing on strengthening the weak linkages in the value chain process in the sector.
“We believe that the time has come for us all to join heads and take pragmatic solutions to address these critical shortfalls if we need to transform the agricultural sector”, he added.
Touching on the foreign exhibitors, Mr. Sulley said FAGRO is attracting more international exhibitors this year because of the huge investment potentials the country’s agricultural sector has to offer to the world of business.
He said although the show could not reach its target number of international exhibitors last year, the story is different this time around as “our international exhibition partner, FBX is bringing in fifty exhibitors as against the five of last year from China, Spain and Portugal.
“The image that we want to build for FAGRO in the medium to long term is to move our agricultural sector forward through the exchange of technical knowhow on modern agricultural technologies and investment and therefore all stakeholders must support this initiative in order to achieve this objective’ he said.
By Edmund Smith-Asante