Ghana, others get 190m euro EU support for banana producers

Ghana will access part of a 190 million euro European Union (EU) financial support for banana-producing countries to revamp its banana industry.

Reports reaching ghanabusinessnews.com say the ten countries that are benefitting from this support are all in the Africa-Caribbean-Pacific or ACP countries and three of these are in Africa, including the Ivory Coast and Cameroon.

The EU decided to provide the funds following an agreement reached in December at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva between the EU, ACP and Latin American countries and the US.

The EU banana regime covers fresh and dried bananas (excluding plantains), frozen, provisionally preserved and prepared bananas, banana juice, banana flour, meal and powder, according to Agritrade.

Ghana’s only commercial producer of banana, the Volta River Estates Limited (VREL), has had its lows and highs.

According to the World Bank’s 2001 estimates, Ghana needs to produce close to 60,000 tonnes of banana a year to make her banana industry sustainable.

Ghana, however, at that time was doing just 5,000 tonnes a year, while Cameroon and Cote d’Ivoire were producing the same figure every fortnight. These figures show Ghana has a lot of catching up to do. To make an impact on the international market Ghana needs to make up for the shortfall of 55,000 tones.

Current figures are not readily available.

Despite the challenges however, Ghana rapidly expanded its exports, becoming the sixth largest ACP supplier in 2007.

This financial support, hopefully would boost the sector further to increase production and export of banana to the EU.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi