Officials at the Ministry of Agriculture have verified that Ghana is importing cassava, as reported by Eric Opoku, Ranking Member of the Food, Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs Committee.
He said that if the necessary assistance is provided, Ghana would be able to satisfy the demand.
“Every firm has its own line of production,” he said when asked why the government can’t restrict enterprises from importing cassava from China and elsewhere. While we are a cassava producing country, we have not yet reached the point of manufacturing industrial starch here in Ghana, therefore if the firm cannot find any from Ghana, would you assume we are importing cassava?
Before concluding that cassava is currently being imported, the Agric officer advised the legislator to compare the imported cassava to the locally eaten cassava.
“We disagree that all cassavas are the same. There is a difference between what we eat and what is utilized industrially. He should have done more study on what is imported and what is eaten locally”, he said.
As he said on Accra’s Okay Fm, the government is exploring working with investors to construct a facility that can manufacture industrial starch to cut imports and generate cash for the local market.
It is now possible to create high-quality cassava flour and even wheat, reducing the need to import wheat. After multiple feasibility studies, our task is to persuade investors to finance the ministry.
