The Ghana Commodity Exchange (GCX) has introduced soybean to its electronic trading platform to boost the production of the crop for both local consumption and export.
Trading of the crop officially began on the GCX platform yesterday.
Addressing the media at the GCX office in Accra, the Chief Executive of the National Food Buffer Stock Company Limited (NAFCO), Hanan Abdul-Wahah, said soybean was an important crop with high domestic and export value.
However, he said the potential of soybean had not been fully realized, expressing the optimism that the introduction of the crop on the GCX platform would enable the country reap its full benefits.
The GCX was launched last year by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to connect markets, people and provide opportunities for brokers, farmers and other stakeholders in the agricultural sector to derive the maximum benefits from commodity exchange trading.
The GCX platform, a wholly-owned state enterprise, began with the electronic trading of maize, until soybean was introduced yesterday.
Mr Wahah said maize farmers who traded with GCX had realised premium prices though a fair and transparent price discovery process.
“They are also able to reach wider and diverse buyers through the GCX platform terminals, who are more willing to offer them better prices,” he added.
“The GCX has introduced product testing, grading and standardisation, trading by contract, quality controls, short term inventory financing and risk management services,” he said.
Mr Wahah announced plans by the GCX to introduce other commodities on its trading platform and noted that the trading of soybean would help boost revenue and production of the crop.
The crop, he said, would also support more Ghanaian farmers and other stakeholders in the value chain with secured storage, post-harvest loss management, warehouse receipts, warehouse receipts financing, and access to markets in Ghana and within ECOWAS.
“Now that the GCX has taken the bold step to launch soy trading, the support from all GCXs partners is even more vital to help the exchange achieve its aim of transforming Ghana’s economy through agriculture,” he said.
BY YAW KYEI
