The Eastern Commodity Satellite Market initiative has since its inception in 2019 connected 13,685 farmers and Small scale processors to the appropriate market which has yielded Ghc19, 325,400 transaction values, according to the Eastern Region Department of Agriculture.
The initiative by the Regional Agriculture Department and the Regional Coordinating Council is a deliberate policy intervention to ensure that value addition is added to every major agric commodity in every Municipality and District in the region to process and packaged for the commodity market.
It seeks to among other things boost agricultural industrialization in the region, contribute to the local economic development of the Districts, Promote value addition to agricultural produce, enhance the supply of good quality agricultural produce for processors and consumers, and also link small-scale farmers and processors to markets.
Speaking at the opening of the 2nd edition of the Eastern commodity satellite market fair in Koforidua, the Eastern Regional Director of Agriculture, Henry Kobina Crentsil Jnr. said the satellite market has the propensity to enable the region to achieve its agricultural industrialization agenda and increase the potential of generating revenue.
He, therefore, urged municipal and District Assemblies in the region to embrace the concept to transform agric commodities in their localities.
“Palm oil is produced by the countless oil palm processes in Togo, Benin, and Nigeria. The processed palm oil in this country is mostly sold in drums and 25 little gallons imagine the revenue these small-scale producers will bring to the country when we all embrace the concept of the Eastern commodity satellite market”.
He announced that the Ghana Export Promotion Authority has taken the initiative a notch further into one district one exportable commodity which will feed into the attainment of the national export strategy.
The Regional Director of Agriculture also stated that the involvement of a major investment partner such as Torchbearer Agricultural Science and Technology (TIAST) Group from China would enable the region to capitalize on its position as a leading producer of Cassava for commercial starch production for export.
The Eastern Regional Minister Seth Kwame Acheampong said Agricultural development is core to the vision of President Akufo Addo-led government.
He urged TIAST to consider extending its support to Small Scale Enterprises in the Agri-Business chain in the region.
“Throughout my engagement with the TIAST group before this fair, I have consistently reiterated the fact that, even though their main targets are large-scale investors, there is the need to urgently design a concept that will embrace the small-scale processors playing a key role in our own Eastern Commodity satellite markets. There is a paradigm shift in agriculture from just primary production to value addition. The only way a smallholder farmer can maximize profit in a perfectly competitive market where the market dictates the price is by-product differentiation through value addition, branding and packaging with special emphasis on quality”. The Minister said
Seth Kwame Acheampong said the partnership between TIAST and the Eastern Commodity Satellite Markets will be sustainable therefore, invited all Municipal/District Chief Executives to not only participate in this event but also to carefully pay attention to what TIAST has to offer and strike partnership agreements before they return to their districts. “It is my wish that after this conference and in less than a year, I will hear of a multi-million-dollar cassava processing company and other commodity processing interventions being established somewhere in our prestigious region”.
Director of Business Development, TIAST Group, Priscilla Fiati said the group envisages providing both technical and financial support to over 1000 individuals or companies for the establishment of their fully automated agro-factories in Ghana and West Africa at large to generate jobs for 1 million people while generating annual trade turnover of about 10 billion dollars in the next 10 years.
She, therefore, urged players in the agric industry to take advantage of this golden opportunity.
The Vice President of TIAST, Kevin Zhou said TIAST and FAMSUN have expertise in helping Ghana modernize its agricultural sector through irrigation, greenhouse technology, and agro-factories to boost the economy.
Source: Mybrytnewsroom.com/Obed Ansah
