MAKING MANGO A BIG NON-TRADITIONAL EXPORT PRODUCT

Page 9, Oct 21, 2008

Article: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah
A favourable and vibrant agricultural sector in Ghana is key to poverty reduction because it employs the bulk of the poor
Commercially cultivated mango, is a relatively new industry of the agriculture sector in Ghana.
The major production areas are the Eastern Coastal and the Middle Transition-Zone Savannahs with the main cultivars as keitt, Kent and Tommy Atkins. Increasing more land areas are coming under mango cultivation by the year.
This industry represents one area within the horticultural sector which, if well developed and provided with the necessary logistics and support, can easily become a major foreign exchange earner.
This is because the country has all the natural conditions that can position the produce as a top export product. According to experts in the industry, Ghana is one of the few countries in the world with two mango seasons, and with the right practices, both seasons can yield fruits for the international mango market.
In 2004, the European Union imported 170,000 metric tones representing less than 1.3% of the total volume of imports of the product". (Daily Graphic Vol, 339. Tuesday February 21, 2006).
The local volume of trade for this giant fibreless hybrid mango species, (Keitt and Kent) in Ghana is very small because the vast majority of Ghanaian mango eaters go in for the local type. Hybrid mangoes produced in Ghana are therefore essentially meant for the European market where there is a huge demand for it.
Efforts to access the European export market for mangoes involved overcoming difficulties such as start up capital, access to good planting materials and gaining access to favourable land tenure for large land holdings needed for that production level in view for export.
GTZ i.e German Technical Cooperation, in 2006, offered to train operatives of the sector on how to produce decease resistant grafted seedlings, which hitherto were obtained from cross border Burkina Faso.
Now the operational barrier that is standing between farmers and large scale mango production for export in access to credit and state technical support.
Mango farmers write very good business plans backed by collateral for accessing medium term credit facilities from the financial institutions but they are rather interested in granting credit to early harvesting crops like careals or vegetables.
This stance by the banks is stifling the mango industry to the brink of collapse.
The Deputy Minister of Agriculture Mr. Clement Eledi disclosed at the launch of the Mango Week on Thursday February 16, 2006, that his ministry among other interventions was providing support to mango out growers in the Northern Region through extending facilities that would enable them access improved planting materials of export varieties. This sadly excluded mango farmers in the Brong Ahafo Region. The Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) also excluded Brong Ahafo as beneficiary region, adding to the frustration and neglect of mango farmers in the area.
An advocacy action to dialogue the financial institutions, the Federation of the Association of Ghana Exporters (FAGE), Trade and Investment Programme for a Competitive Export Economy (TIPCEE), Export Promotion Council of the Ministry of Trade, Industry PSI & PSD and MOFA for them to come to appreciate the potential and capacity of mango famers to embark on large scale mango production for export is now the only hope for survival of the sector.
It is only at that capital intensive high production level for export that farmers can offset overheads and other production costs, break even and make meaningful profit to break the poverty cycle that has become endemic in the rural areas. Located in the transition zone between the Savannah North and the forest south, large scale mango farms will double as a reforestation programme which will provide shelter and arrest the Savannah and thus save the environment.
But operatives in this new industry, particularly, the Kintampo Mango Farmers Association (KIMFA), are reeling under the usual distress factors that characterise in Ghanaian Agricultural Sector in general.
Mango Farmers are not only making losses but are loosing entire investments as a result of the lack of sate institutional support, in terms of extension and infrastructure. This situation is limiting their production levels, in both quality and yield per acre. Thus they are kept out of the huge export opportunities on the international market, as local demand for these varieties cannot support and grow the industry.
KIMFA's goal is ,"seeing a booming, vibrant and competitive mango sector; growing in job opportunities and income generation,"
With this goal in view, KIMFA applied for and won a highly competitive grant from BUSAC Fund (created by DANIDA, DFID and USAID to enable them engage public sector policy makers in dialogue, to seek policy changes that will see the development and growth of the industry.
BUSAC's core goal is to facilitate the development and growth of a vibrant and competitive private sector by improving the environment within businesses operate.
As part of KIMFA's advocacy action, the grant sponsored a research activity that took a four- member implementation team to the Republic of South Africa to document the country’s success story that will be used to convince policy makers to come to aid of the industry.
In South Africa, the main mango production areas are the Limpopo and Mpumalanga Provinces, located in the south east of the country. Hoedspruit area, lying to the west of the Kruger National Park, accounts for over 45 per cent of South African mangoes.
Mango plantations in the Hoedspruit area, where the team visited, are planted in orchards of about a hector each in seize; surrounded by tall pine trees, serving as wind break to stop the wind from hitting the fruits and giving them dark sports and lowering their market value.
At the time of the study tour mango fruits were in season in farmers were busily harvesting.The team visited several nurseries, farms, plants and engineering workshops and observed everything in the industry, including grafting technology, harvesting, pack-house operations, processes for making mango chips, mechanical pruning and irrigation infrastructure.
The most popular planting distance applied in South Africa is 3m between trees in the row and 7m between rows. In Ghana planting, 10m by 10m is the norm; a practice which South African farmers stopped years ago, to maximise yield per acre and to make harvesting easier.
According to officials who undertook the trip, the team gathered from the farmers that as a result of on-going new land reforms which seeks to reverse the situation where over 6 per cent of South African lands are owned by whites who make up only 10 per cent of the population, land is fast becoming critical for mango farmers, who are mostly whites.
It was not surprising, therefore to hear a few farmers express investment interest in Ghana. This is an area of partnership that KIMFA , in particular, and other mango producers must endeavour to pursue.
Even for South Africa the competition with countries such as Brazil, India and Egypt on the European market is very stiff.
Areas where the state must support Ghanaian mango farmers, for them to be able to enter the stiff competition, are; extension, credit facilities,pack house infrastructure and irrigation infrastructure.
The public sector stands to benefit by supporting the mango sector, in terms of foreign exchange earnings, local revenue generation and employment creation.
On the other hand, removal of constraints in the mango sub sector is positively correlated with;
•enhanced income levels,employment opportunities, wealth creation and poverty reduction for the private sector operatives.
Thus the advocacy action will end up in a win-win situation for both the public sector and private sector.