Manager Director of Eden Tree, a wholly-owned Ghanaian fruits and vegetables processing company, Catherine Krobo Edusei has called on the government and stakeholders especially the financial sector to invest in local farmers.
She said the expected high demand for local produce as a result of the campaign for the consumption of Made in Ghana goods would require that farmers were supported to produce enough.
“Ghanaians are beginning to consume local rice and other foodstuffs but farmers currently lack the capacity to produce enough for the entire country since they still rely on old methods of farming which does not help produce much,” she said when journalists toured the company in Tema on Monday.
The tour was to enable the journalists to have first hand information about the operations of the company.
She said farmers needed soft loans to enable them to acquire modern farming equipment to produce much and improve upon their yields.
“Until this is done, there would be the continuous influx of foreign goods onto the Ghanaian market,” she said.
“Let us invest in the farmers and support local companies to expand and produce more. This is the only way we could sustain the ‘Eat Ghana’ agenda,” she stressed.
To help local farmers, she said the company sources 100 per cent of its fruits and vegetables from local farmers.
She encouraged the public to consume a lot of vegetables and fruits in order to stay healthy and productive at all times.
The Eden Tree boss advised the public to consume vegetables and fruits not exposed to the sun but rather kept in cool temperatures as products exposed to the sun loses their nutritional values
On the outlook for the company she said “In the next five years, we are looking forward to expanding and exporting to the African sub region.”
BY MICHAEL D. ABAYATEYE
