This is because, the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, says the EU officials who completed another round inspection six weeks ago attested to progress made.

The auditors who were three in number, among other things, thoroughly assessed the sanitary and phytosanitary systems in Ghana required for ensuring the safety of food items and fresh produce.

“The auditors have come and gone about six weeks ago and all indications are now clear that they are now happy with the arrangements that we have put in place,” he said at the Graphic Business/Stanbic Bank Breakfast Meeting in Accra.

He said the country had already taken steps to upgrade its sanitary and phytosanitary systems and infrastructure in order to reverse the ban on exports of five vegetables, namely capsicum, solanum species-aubergines, momordica, luffa and lagenaria (gourd family)-after failing an assessment in 2015 due to high levels of interceptions in the EU market.

EU ban

The EU, three years ago, banned the exports of chillies, aubergine and other vegetables from Ghana to stop the introduction of pests into the ecosystem of the EU. Other affected vegetables are gourds and Asian vegetables.

It is estimated that the country lost more than US$30 million worth of exports of the selected vegetables to the EU market, since the ban three years ago.

Dr Akoto expressed confidence that the country would pass the audit following robust measures deployed to correct anomalies in the system.

“We have now put in place the right measures, which include upgrading exporting facilities at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) and skills of Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate (PPRSD) inspectors, to pave the way for the ban on these five vegetables to be reversed.

“There is a directorate at the ministry called the Plant Protection Directorate, which I must admit that they have been very negligent to allow these products to enter into the European market only to be rejected.

“There are several warnings to them but despite the warnings, the numbers rather kept going up and, therefore, they decided to extend the ban and even gave us stricter conditions,” he said.

Overturning fortune of industry

A participant, who is a vegetables exporter, Mr Samuel Kwaku Asamoah, told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS after the event that lifting of the ban would help overturn the fortunes of the vegetable industry.

Mr Asamoah noted that once the ban was lifted, the government must also adopt stringent measures to prevent a future ban.

“Lifting of the ban will be able to make the vegetable industry very viable and help grow the agricultural sector in general,” he said, and added, “The five main vegetable produce that have been banned have made industry players quite stranded over the past two years.”

“Before the ban, Ghana used to be the fifth exporter of fresh vegetables to the EU market and we are hopeful that once the ban is lifted within a period of one year, the fortunes of the industry will be overturned,” Mr Asamoah added.