Ghanaians drink $150 million worth of imported fruit juice yearly

Ghana imports US$150 million worth of fruit juice annually.

This is despite the collapsing of some fruit juice processing factories in Ghana.

According to the goldstreetbusiness.com, 99% of these major factories including Coastal Groove in the Central Region, Coco Bean also in the Central Region, Sunripe in the Eastern Region, Premium Kingdom in the Volta Region, Pinora, Blue Skies and Fruity Land are all said to be operating under 10 percent capacity.

The Ghanaian companies producing argue that the high cost of power and cost of capital are the main causes for the low production in the sector.

An example is Sunripe Fruit Juice Company with an investment of US$7 million investment and 80 workers now work for one week and shut down for three weeks.

The owner, Ruth Acheampong, who spoke to Goldstreet Business said the government must solve these challenges before setting up the new factories under the ‘One District One Factory’ project.

“We have all these factories, so we have the equipment, but they are operating under 10 percent capacity. These issues have to be resolved, otherwise, there is the risk that the One District, One factory will go the same way. We import US$15 million worth of fruit juice into the country every year. At the end of the day there are 10 fruit juice factories collapsing, what is the underlying problem. We keep saying that we import tomato paste; six tomato paste factories either have no equipment or have not been set up or have totally collapsed. And we are still importing tomato paste. We should find out what is wrong with the industries.”

READ ALSO: Prices of goods go up by 20.5%

Meanwhile, one of the major West African countries Ghana compares itself to has banned 43 items including fruit juice from everywhere in the world including ECOWAS states.

Before the ban, Nigeria was producing only US$2 million litres worth of juice but the country is now producing US$550 million worth of the product.

Ruth Acheampong said if the government implements some of the drastic actions Nigeria has taken it will go a long way to help the economy and other stakeholders in the industry.

Ghanaians drink $150 million worth of imported fruit juice yearly

Ghana imports US$150 million worth of fruit juice annually.

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