Ghana to benefit from National Food Packaging Centre

Ghana is to benefit from a National Food Packaging Centre being proposed by the ‘Improving Food Packaging for Small Medium Agro-Enterprises Project" in Sub-Saharan Africa.  

The centre, when established would provide technical support including training, assistance in supply, designing, labelling and support to meet regulatory standards and also serve as a means of technology transfer from industrialised countries to Sub-Saharan African countries. 

The Agro-Industry and Infrastructure Officer, FAO, Stephanie Gallatova said the project will play a crucial role in preserving food quality and safety and facilitate distribution and marketing of food products.

The project is a collaborative effort of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the International Trade Centre and I.M.A s.p.a to address the challenges of poor packaging.

The Agro-Industry and Infrastructure Officer, FAO, Stephanie Gallatova said in Ghana, just like most Sub-Saharan African countries, there is a problem of poor packaging hence the failure of locally manufactured food products to establish themselves in the global market and also compete favourably with imported products  

She said there is a strong and growing demand for processed and packaged products in sub-Saharan Africa and the region has a big and growing potential market population projected to double from 1.2 billion to 2.4 billion by 2050.  

She said the project has a critical role to play in the ongoing transformation of the agri-food chain due to their significant contribution to income, employment and growth of the national economy.  

A resource person at the launch of the project, Djibril Drame, said it is aimed at providing guidance to food chain actors, government and the private sector on appropriate food packaging systems including food packaging, materials, equipment and an enabling policy and regulatory framework.  

The initial phase of the project would assess the packaging needs and priorities of the project and the feasibility of establishing National Packaging Centres.  

He said the evidence gathered from these studies would inform the design of the regional project on the development of the food packaging sector in sub-Saharan Africa. 

The Director for Value Chain and Logistics at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Papa Bartels, said government is rolling out a National Packaging Policy and logistics strategy to guide the sector. 

This is to address capacity building, legal and regulatory regimes, financing and taxes and quality and safety issues.  

He said the ministry is committed to the project and is ready to support in its implementation process to improve the food packaging sector.

SOURCE: GNA