The Minister for Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Dr Bryan Acheampong, has said the ban on grain export remains the same as the country recovers from the dry spell.
On August 27, the Minister imposed an immediate ban on grain exports due to severe drought in Northern Ghana, ensuring domestic availability and supporting affected farmers.
The ban aimed to ensure that enough crops remain available for the domestic market amidst the challenging weather conditions, and to help mitigate the impact on farmers.
In a press briefing on Tuesday at the Ministry of Information, in Accra, Dr Acheampong explained that it is crucial for food production to be stabilized before opening up for export. This, he said, will allow Ghanaians not to experience hikes in food prices.
“We have to get to a certain point that you and I are ok with the food systems before we open the export markets for our grains to go out”, he said.
He continued to say that it is necessary for farmers to export to enable them to generate income for the country, yet, it is empirical for the country to harvest more food before export.
He said, “The government subsidised farm inputs for farmers to make crop production easy, however, if we allow exports, private farmers will aggregate the grains and export and gain personal benefits which becomes a loss to the economy.”
Nonetheless, he said until there is enough food and enough harvest in our buffet warehouses to keep the demands of grains, no export of grains will be allowed.
However, he assured that the Ministry will continue to monitor food stability and allow exports of buffet grains in an organized manner.
Speaking on improving the agricultural sector, he said an online portal has been created to help both farmers and public individuals to be abreast with farm gate and market prices of grains.
