Mango farmers in Sunyani bemoan low patronage

Correspondence from Bono Region

Mango farmers in the Sunyani Municipality of the Bono Region have bemoaned the unavailability of a ready market for their produce.

With a harvest of 1000 tonnes and 2500 tonnes in the off and peak seasons respectively, the farmers contend that there has been a decline in the purchase of mangoes, a situation which results

Read full articlein post-harvest losses as the mangoes get rotten a few days after they have been harvested from the farm.

An Executive Member of Greenfield Mango Farmers Association, Sunyani, Mr Gyasi Acheampong, indicates that mango farming is a viable venture but without the necessary investments in the sector, the toil of the farmers’ will always be in vain.

Mr Gyasi Acheampong decries the many instances where mangoes have been harvested but there are no ready markets for them because mango buying companies have reduced the frequency at which they used to purchase mangoes from them.

“Our mangoes are ripe on the trees but there are no buyers. The buyers now prefer to buy from farmers whose farms are closer in terms of distance. This has negatively affected the farmers and as you can see there are mangoes here but we are struggling to get buyers to come and purchase them”.

A farmer, Madam Philomena Nkrumah Sarpong Vida adds that the situation often results in farmers running at a loss because the mangoes are normally left on the various farms.

“The problem we are facing as mango farmers in this area is that we don’t have buyers patronizing the mangoes so the mangoes are left on the farms and they get rotten in the long run”.

The farmers, therefore, want the government to create an enabling environment for them by setting up a mango processing factory in the Bono Region under its flagship private sector-led One District One Factory Initiative(1D1F) to deal with post-harvest losses.