The Ambassador of Denmark to Ghana, Tom Nørring has called for an investment in cold storage facilities in Ghana to address post-harvest losses.
He made the call on the sideline of a report which disclosed that about 50% of crops harvested in the country end up in bins annually.
Mr. Tom Nørring while speaking to stakeholders during a food security seminar put together by the Danish Embassy in Ghana revealed that Ghana loses over 16 million dollars to post-harvest losses for some selected food crops.
Shockingly, the report detailed that this figure is representing findings from Ashaiman, in the Greater Accra Region.
“As an example, we can look at the area of Ashaiman: here the report assesses the value of post-harvest food loss for mango, yam, plantain, garden eggs, and tomatoes alone are valued at $16 million annually. An investment in solar-powered cold storage for these value chains will result in revenue of over $ 2 million for solution providers while providing additional revenue to traders worth over $8 million,” he revealed.
The Ambassador also disclosed his home country has developed state-of-the-art facilities that has drastically reduced post-harvest losses.
“Denmark is actually traditionally a farming country, hence we’ve developed a lot of solutions of which some will be applicable here and others need to be adopted to be applicable in Ghana”.
“We have companies that developed solutions for food losses such as providing cold storage, cold chain among others. We want to bring in some Danish companies to match with some Ghanaian companies to form partnerships. We believe that these kinds of partnerships create real ownership on both sides,” he explained.
The new report has shown that the value of food losses and waste in the entire country is estimated at $1.9 billion per annum.
The study is to assess the volumes of food loss “and importantly, identifying the potential value if we instead take that loss and turn it into a gain.”
“In essence, the study looked at the business case of investing in solutions to combat food loss for a number of value chains in fruits and vegetables. The study showed that there are intriguing business cases for farmers, producers, investors, and stakeholders in the value chains if we apply the right solutions to reduce food loss and instead turn this loss into value,” the Danish Ambassador emphasised in a report by Citinewroom.
Meanwhile, Tom Nørring has admonished stakeholders for a stronger partnership between Danish and Ghanaian businesses to find lasting solutions to the food wastage recorded in the country.
