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Mr Harm Duiker, National Director of SNV (left), signs a cooperation agreement with Mr Benjamin Agbesi, Managing Director of AB Farms
The Ministry of Trade and Industry has invited Dutch companies to invest in Ghana's agri-food space, which would offer more opportunities.
Papa Kow Bartels, director of value chain and logistics at the ministry, said that with more than 700,000 businesses registered in Ghana's business register, the agri-food sector accounted for only 0.44%, a gap huge that Dutch and European companies could explore to set up directly or local counterpart partners.
The director spoke at the second meeting of the horticultural platform in Accra, which also hosted an 11-member business delegation of agribusiness companies from the Netherlands. They were in the country to explore business opportunities.
The delegation was organized and led by the Council of African Enterprises of the Netherlands, an organization with access to more than 20,000 African and European companies wishing to do business in Africa.
The economy beyond the aid
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Mr Bartels said support from countries such as the Netherlands and his private sector was important as Ghana strove to build an economy beyond aid.
"Agriculture employs 45% of our population, but entrepreneurship in the sector accounts for less than 1%, which creates a huge gap. As a country, we are working on our economy to become a major player in West Africa, with a population of about 400 million people, most of whom work in agriculture, "he said. he added.
According to Mr. Bartels, Ghana is a beacon of peace characterized by political and economic stability, security and safety of people and sound industrial transformation policies.
Professional opportunities
The 11 members of the Dutch trade mission explored business opportunities in Ghana's horticultural sector from Monday 11th to Thursday 14th March 2019.
Members included a broad range of horticultural technology and knowledge providers, including Simonis Fertilizers B.V, specializing in the production of organic and organo-mineral mineral fertilizers.
Spraying and soil badysis technology companies, Mantis ULV and Agrocares were also included. Bakker Brothers, a well-known seed brand, Jiffy and OLMIX, producers, environmentally friendly growing systems and natural sources of nutrients, as well as Delphy, a consulting company. The others came from Solidaridad and the HAS University of Applied Science.
The meeting also brought together the main horticultural stakeholders in the fruit and vegetable sector, who focused on the new challenges and presented solutions that would make the sector more competitive.
Importance
Ms. Katja Lbadeur, Deputy Ambbadador of the Netherlands to Ghana, said the meeting confirmed the Dutch government's commitment to promoting agriculture through private sector participation and investment.
She added that the meeting echoed the motto "Holland and Ghana grow together". The ambbadador expressed the hope that members of the delegation would find suitable trading partners in Ghana.
During the event, a call for concept notes on the vegetable sector was launched, inviting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to submit innovative business ideas to address "value-added and other trade-related" gaps .
Context
The HortiFresh Business Platform meeting is a quarterly event to bring together the leading service providers, producers, processors, traders, wholesalers and retailers in the fruit and vegetable sector in Ghana.
Stakeholders provide advice on how the Hortifresh program works and leads in terms of sectoral activities and how the available funding opportunities can be used to improve the sector.
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