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12.04.2016 Business & Finance

Artificial Boosting of Cedi Affecting Agric, Manufacturing

By Ghanaian Chronicle
Artificial Boosting of Cedi Affecting Agric, Manufacturing
12.04.2016 LISTEN

Blue Skies-Ghana, one of the biggest manufacturing companies in the country, which deals in fresh fruit drinks have observed that the millions of dollars the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has injected into the economy, as a monetary policy to save the cedis from further decline has rather led to a sharp nose-dive in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors.

According to the company, the BoG should have allowed the cedis to naturally decline and recover on its own, with the indicators of the markets determining its strength. Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show yesterday morning, Mr. Alistair Djimatey -Public Relations Manager of the company, explained that the artificial boosting of the cedis has led to the folding up of huge competitors in the manufacturing industry.

He noted that the artificial boosting of the cedi has also led to the huge importation of products, which are already being manufactured in the country.

Mr. Djimatey stressed: “The availability of raw materials, proximity to market, political stability and the strength of the currency are the prospects which define the reasons companies will like to establish in a country like Ghana to do business”.

He noted that, most of the farm lands in the country have been sold by the chiefs to real estate developers, adding, if care is not taken, the next ten to twenty years would lead to a possible food crisis. “Ghana needs to look at the land tenancy agreement system, which is not helping the growth of agriculture in the country. If this continues the way it is, it will bring disaster into the country”, the PR Manager added.

To encourage our young ones, especially students to develop the interest to go into farming as a profession, Mr. Djimatey explained that his outfit has initiated the Future Farm Project, in collaboration with second cycle institutions in the country. The Future Farm Project is the company's corporate social responsibility to assist students in second cycle institutions to develop interest in farming as an alternative means of business.

Mr. Djimatey called for caution on the part of teachers not to use weeding as a mean of punishment to correct recalcitrant students, which according to him, could rather discourage them, stressing that young people should rather see farming as an alternative means of business. Meanwhile, the company imports 30% of smooth cayenne; an indigenous Ghanaian pineapple from Togo and Ivory Coast, and about 65% of mangoes from Brazil, Senegal, Burkina Faso, The Gambia and South Africa.

He explained that, beyond the challenges farmers face in growing enough mangoes, his outfit has been forced to resort to importation of the produce because in Ghana, mangoes are only harvested within a specific period of time. “Mango is seasonal and it will interest you to know that throughout the world, Ghana is the only country that has two seasons of mangoes and even with the two seasons, we produce mangoes only twelve weeks out of the 52 weeks of the year, so that has been a seasonal and a periodic activity.

“Every year, we have to import mangoes from other parts of the world when Ghana is not in season”. Mr. Djimatey continued that the situation has forced the company to set up factories in Egypt and Brazil in order to meet the demands of the European market.

By: Chris Twum ([email protected])

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