The ban on mangoes from Ghana in South Africa is still in place, said Dr. Braimah Harunah, a senior official of the Ghana's Crop Research Institute (CRI).
He said the ban, instituted in 2005, was due to the threat that the fruit fly posed to the mango industry in that country. The fruit fly lays eggs in the young mango fruit, the larvae then growing with the tree. Conducive weather conditions in South Africa would favour the spread of the fruit fly in that country.
"There is however an emerging market in the EU for which farmers needed to work hard to capture, since the fly can not grow in European temperate regions," Harunah said.
Dr. Harunah was speaking to about 150 mango farmers drawn from the Greater Accra, Volta, Eastern and the Brong Ahafo Regions who are attending a two-day workshop in Accra on the "Emerging Challenges in Contemporary Mango Plantation Management."
Harunah said out of 170,000 metric tones of mangoes valued at more than 200 million dollars imported into the European Union in 2004, Ghana's share was only 220 metric tonnes, representing only one percent. He advised the farmers to study the market and cultivate the varieties that the European market wanted such as the Champaign Mangoes since the demand for Keitt ('green mangoes') was waning.
Although Ghana was not among the top 40 mango exporters, the industry was pointing in the right direction and if more attention was given to that sector mango would become a major foreign exchange earner for the country, he added. He said this could be achieved if strategic measures were put in place to prevent diseases like mealy bug, Anthracnose, animal damage and destruction by fruit flies.
Harunah said CRI was liaising with Biotechnology, Nuclear and Agricultural Research Institute (BNARI) to find out if the mangoes could be radiated before being exported to ensure a longer shelf life.
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