Ghana’s Ministry of Food and Agriculture has placed an indefinite ban on the export of Capsicum, Solanum, luffa and all leafy vegetables to the international market from June 1 2019.
In a statement signed by the Director of the Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate, the ministry said the suspension has become necessary due to “the high level of local interceptions at the exit points; the alarming rate of external notifications, and the new EU directives to all countries to re-provide dossiers to the EU on the management of harmful organisms on some of the above vegetables.”
The statement said Ghana recently came out of a ban on vegetable exports imposed by the European Union, “and, as such, we are still on the red list and being monitored closely”.
The statement added: “We are only five months into the second year, the number of notifications is increasing, and if we are not careful, the European Union will ban Ghana.”
Last year, the statement said, “internal interceptions by our officers amounted to 162 while external notifications were 53 due to harmful organisms.”
“From the beginning of this year to date (23/05/2019), internal interceptions by our officers has risen to 120 and 20 for external notifications”, the statement added.
Meanwhile, Ghana has resumed the export of maize to three neighbouring countries, including Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, and Togo.
This comes at the heels of similar feat in the area of plantain, with reports that several tons of the foodstuffs were being exported to countries in the sub region.
Other food items such as yam, cowpea, and cassava are also being exported according to records tracking the movements of foodstuffs in some major markets across the country.
