Volta Trade Fair Launched

The fourth edition of the southern Volta Trade Fair has been launched with a call on Ghanaian entrepreneurs to make their products distinctive to enable them to enter the international market.

A Lecturer at the University of Ohio in the United States of America, Mr Padmore Agbemabiase, who made the call said “we cannot sell what the Europeans have manufactured back to them.

We have to sell what we have produced locally so that we could be identified with such products.”

He said products made in Ghana could be packaged within our cultural framework which should manifest themselves through our music, dance, language and mode of dressing which provided the Ghanaian with a unique identity.

The trade fair and exhibition was launched at Abor in the Avenor District of the Volta Region.

The event, which is slated for September 25 and October 5, 2008 at Aflao, would offer a platform for the exhibition of general goods, clothing, foodstuffs, pottery, salt, kente and ceramics with emphasis on goods and services produced in the Volta Region.

Mr Agbemabiase underscored the economic importance of the natural salt to the European market and urged the people to turn the salt industry into a potential foreign exchange earner for the country.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Keta-based Reviera World Consult, Mr Frank Foley, organisers of the fair, christened 'Vakpor 2008' literally meaning “come and see”, said various institutions as well as companies would be present at the fair to showcase their wares.

The Volta Region abounds in veritable goods, services and untapped resources but lacked the proper packaging and adequate investments to reap the benefits economically.

Mr Foley cited the abundant human resource base, the agricultural resources, especially the fishing industry as well as the potentials in the salt production, vegetables and cereals cultivation.

“It is an undeniable fact that the exposure, packaging, marketing and advocacy of the region are moving at a very slow pace,” he added.

Mr Foley was optimistic that the fair would stimulate the needed interest and action in the business sector to help develop the region.