The Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia, has advised tomato famers to ensure that they plant varieties that can be turned in paste.
He said that is what tomato processing factories in Ghana want to buy.
“So we must begin producing the type of tomatoes that can be processed into tomato paste. In that case it will be easier to invite investors to come and do the tomato factory and provide jobs for them,” he said during his tour of the Greater Accra Region on March 9.
He added that, “We have established one in my home area- Berekum Tomato Factory but the factory is sitting there, it cannot get the tomatoes to process because the tomato type that should be processed is not the type that the farmers are growing. So, we are now working to get the improved variety which when you plant, the farmers plant then the factory can buy.”
Mr Nketia emphasised that it is the non-production of the required tomatoes that leads to the situation where although there is a glut, we still import tomatoes.
“…the problem I keep talking about wherever I go is that see, even though we are producing tomatoes and we cannot get buyers Ghana is still importing tomatoes.
You know the reason? Because those who use tomatoes in their factories they need a certain type of tomatoes. So, unless and until you grow that type they cannot buy. Your tomatoes will be rotten while they are importing other tomatoes to process,” the NDC Chairman stressed.
He added that, “Many of our hotels in Ghana, they are importing tomatoes and other vegetables. We say we want to build hotels to encourage tourism but when we build the hotels, we bring the food they will be eating from outside then they come here to eat that food. They don’t buy our local farm produce.
So at the end of the day the benefit we get from tourism is very very minimal. Because the people who come to sleep in the hotels they come from outside. Everything they eat in the hotel we import it and so they will come and eat and the only thing they leave us is the waste.”
Mr Nketia noted that tourism that is developed along that line does not benefit any country.
“So it is about time that we found out what it is that the hotels need so that we will produce it for them and earn income from that production and then when people come and they buy they leave their money here and that is how the country benefits from tourism,” he stated.
