From Ghana Web via Graphic Online

Ghana has missed three separate opportunities to export crude palm oil (CPO), tuna and aluminium ingots to Turkey this year under circumstances that cast doubts on the country’s preparedness to properly diversify exports and increase earnings from the sector.

The Director of Projects at the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA), Mr Emmanuel Quao, told the Daily Graphic in Izmir, Turkey, that a Turkish company which wanted 26,000 tonnes of CPO supplied to it on monthly basis was turned down because palm oil producers in the country could not raise the required amount to support that kind of production.

“None of the producers was able to take up the order and we also tried to get smallholder producers to make up for the quantities but that didn’t work,” Mr Quao, who coordinates Ghana’s participation in Turkish fairs, told the paper in Turkey.

The failure to grab such opportunities, the fruits of the country’s participation in international fairs in Turkey over the years, was due to the inability of companies in these sectors to meet the quantity of orders made on each of the three occasions. This means a loss of millions of foreign exchange in export revenues.

Mr Quao spoke to the Daily Graphic at the 83rd Izmir International Trade Fair, in which 14 companies in the pharmaceutical, food and beverage, cosmetics and sporting industries of the economy are participating.

The fair is an annual event by the people of Izmir for businesses around the world to showcase their products and services to the world, as well as explore opportunities for cross-border investments.

This year’s event opened on August 29 and ended yesterday, September 3.

Read more at Ghana Web