Barca Frontline retweetet
In August 2021, former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo commissioned the $16 million Weddi Africa Tomato Processing Factory in Domfete, Berekum (Bono Region). The factory was established to reduce tomato imports and create value addition with the introduction of the tomato mix brand “Sweet Mama.”
The tomato factory, just like other defunct factories established by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, has been shut down because the country is not producing enough tomatoes to feed the plant’s 40,000-metric-ton annual capacity.
Ghana excels in enacting policies and initiating highly promising projects for economic development, but our main problem is that there is a weak culture of maintaining and sustaining these projects over time.
“Sweet Mama” could have been a post-harvest mitigation strategy to incentivize the use of tomato waste, but the products were not properly marketed because the factory lacked a clear long-term sustainability plan.
As a country, why do we even start what we cannot finish? That is not only counterproductive, but it also shows that in our policy decisions, we lack foresight and the right thinking to make systems work.
Naa@OyooQuartey
This is how food is wasted in our markets. Our small holder farmers always face a glut and food spoilage after harvest due to almost zero storage facilities and processing factories. Meanwhile we are a food in-secure country with many going to bed hungry. Hon @EricOpokuMP what are we doing as a country towards zero food waste? #ZeroWasteDay
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