COLEACP at Fruit Logistica 2012

FRUIT LOGISTICA 2012 Ghana

8 to 10 February. Berlin. This trade fair was characterized by the presence of the industry's key decision-makers as well as by excellent reviews from exhibitors and trade visitors who praised the commercial results achieved at the exhibition. The event also registered a record number of exhibiting companies, 2537 in all. More than 56,000 trade visitors from 139 countries were in Berlin to view the full spectrum of products and services across the entire fresh produce value chain. Around 80% of the visitors at this year's exhibition came from outside Germany.

COLEACP, PIP and EDES teams facilitated contacts between ACP exporter and EU importer Members at the Fruit Logistica 2012. You will find more information on the COLEACP entry on the « Fruit Logistica Virtual Market Place »

Federation of Associations of Ghanaian Exporters. Ghana is focusing on the extremely tasty pineapples that it grows and harvests all year round. "Many Europeans are not aware of this. We are at FRUIT LOGISTICA to make this fact known", says Antony Sikpa, President of the Federation of Associations of Ghanaian Exporters. Ghana is represented with four exporters, whose produce, in addition to pineapples, includes papayas and mangos.

FRUIT LOGISTICA 2012 Mairitius
(with a breadfruit)

Mozfoods S.A., Mozambique: "This was our first appearance at FRUIT LOGISTICA and it was very valuable for our business. We had a chance to meet with our customers and build new contacts with prospective buyers in Europe. The current demand clearly exceeds our production capacities". Carlos Henriques, Chief Executive Officer.
Enterprise Mauritius: "We are very satisfied with our first appearance at FRUIT LOGISTICA.  The trade fair is an excellent platform for maintaining existing contacts and finding new customers. We had visitors from Brazil, China, Britain, France and the Middle East at our stand. In the coming months, we will see what specific orders will arise from this". Yogesh O. Amoroo, Business Development Officer

Related: Extract from Agricultural Innovation in Sub-Saharan Africa: experiences from multiple-stakeholder approaches

Ghana’s pineapple industry. This case study concerns the rehabilitation of the pineapple industry after loss of valuable export markets to Europe as new country producers provided sweeter varieties favoured by consumers. Pineapples now account for more than 50 percent of Ghana’s total horticultural exports and the crop is a source of income and employment for 15,000 people. Increased production has led to significant poverty reduction in pineapple-growing areas with farmers reporting a 10 percent increase in income (World Bank, 2006), largely due to increased production and higher prices for the commodity.

Lessons learned for scaling up. The strong commitment of all stakeholders – donors, national partners, NGOs, Government, exporters, importers, individual farmers and research institutes – has played an important role in the success achieved in the pineapple industry. Linkage with export markets has clearly been a driving factor. However the emergence of large-scale farmers and processors has made them the major beneficiaries at the expense of smallholder farmers.Meeting this challenge will require additional support to raise their production levels.