Mr. Anjo Van Toorn, the Country Director of the Netherlands Development Organisation for Ghana, has called on horticulture sector actors to constantly dialogue to market their products and services.
He said new dimensions of scaling up, innovation, and partnerships were triggered to take the sector to the next level.
Van Toorn was speaking at the HortiFresh Business Platform Meeting, which coincided with the launch of the 2019 Horticulture Business Opportunities in Ghana Report and the “HortiFresh Awards” in Accra.
He said the HortiFresh programme aimed to develop “sustainable and internationally competitive fruit and vegetable sector that contributes to inclusive economic growth, as well as food and nutrition security”.
He said as they partner the public sector to enhance the conducive business climate for entrepreneurs to be dynamic, the latter on the other hand were encouraged to actively take leaps towards being competitive in both the domestic setting and the global horticulture space.
Mr. Joep van den Broek, the Vegetable Advisor, HortiFresh Programme, said the report analysed opportunities in the fruit sector, vegetable sector, competitiveness of the vegetable sector, access to finance, roadmap for pest reduction in fruit and vegetable exports in Ghana.
In the area of pest reduction in fruit and vegetable exports, the Advisor said the report recommends that exporters and their out-growers have to strictly follow these pest reduction protocols in the field and packhouse to ensure commodities for exports were free from pest, especially those of quarantine importance.