It is the peak harvest season for tomatoes and a visit to market centres in especially the urban areas reveal an abundance of tomatoes selling at very cheap prices.
There are heaps of the vegetables everywhere, cartons sitting in the sun and some rotten ones on the ground at the mercy of passersby. The present situation has lead to tomato farmers in the country entertaining fears of the likely repetition of a glut in the system.
“Here it is again, the glut has descended upon us and the situation we thought back last year would not happen is staring at us and we appear helpless,” said Kojo Hammond, a tomato farmer for the past 25 years who said he had promised to be more prudent, and not plant so many tomatoes.
“This year has been a good year; the rains did not fail us. It came in time and the plants yielded more than I and most of the other farmers expected. It could also be because of the good farming practice we observed,” he added.
Patience Boabeng, a tomatoes trader at the Kaneshie market, is happy and says “I wish we would experience that throughout the year.”
For her, the over abundance of tomato is good for her pocket. During the dry season, just two months ago, nobody would have thought the markets would have been inundated with so many tomatoes with no buyers.
Market queens, who are the major buyers of tomatoes are cashing in on the development as they have taken advantage of the peak harvest to lower the price of a crate of tomatoes. Within the past two weeks, the prices of tomatoes have been reduced twice, hitting a rock-bottom price of GH¢75.
Cartons of tomatoes which were selling in the dry season for GH¢ 250 is now going for as low as GH¢75. Farmers and dealers believe it could go down.
Across the country, tomato farmers want the perennial problem of tomato glut which is followed swiftly by a shortage addressed.
A section of them in the Tono, Vea and Pwalugu irrigation areas of the Upper East Region have urgently appealed to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) to assist them to get better prices for their produce.
A tomato farmer at Bolgatanga, Odame Adufu, who made a passionate appeal on behalf of his colleagues in the Upper West, said if immediate measures are not taken by government to address the perennial problem of tomato glut, the country’s laudable agricultural policies would be defeated.
In view of the high cost of agro-chemicals, fertilisers and other agricultural inputs, as well as the high cost of land preparation, the high incidence of diseases and unreliable rain fall serve as an impediment to the activities of the farmers.
Though the farmers want government to intervene and ensure that the price of tomatoes are stabilized, especially during the peak season, market queens, who operate in the form of cartels, have expressed their opposition to any significant increase in the farm gate price of a crate of tomatoes.
Esther Ofoi, a market queen at the Agbobloshie market, let the cat out of the bag when she hinted that they plan to create shortages of the vegetable in urban centers if the determination of the price is not left in their hand.
Poor market of produce is also a major problem of the sector as there is usually no ready market to patronize the highly perishable tomatoes.
In most tomato growing areas, ripe tomatoes are left on the farms to rot while in the next few months, the dry season will rear it ugly head and consumers will desperately be in need of the vegetable.
The farmers say they wish they can safely transport their produce to the market centres to market some money, but their greatest impediment is the transportation system.
Just imagine farmers in the Northern part of the country waiting for traders from the south. When the market finally arrives, the usually over ripe tomatoes parked in 90 by 60 wooden boxes are transported down to the south.
The headache over the glut and post harvest loses experienced every year during the peak season can be a problem of the past if more is invested in industries that could process the raw tomato into finished product such as canned tomato paste.
Mr Odame Adufu suggested to the government to speed up with the divestiture programme of the Pwalugu Tomato Factory, which would absorb tomatoes produced in especially the Northern Region.
Kwabena Darko, Farms Operations Manager of the Northern Star Tomato Company at Pwalugu, divulged that the company had so far not been financed to be able to purchase the produce of the farmers in the region.
He however disclosed that the management of the company was liaising with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the Ministry of Trade and Industry to source funding for the programme.
If Government spends about $500 million on importing rice, while domestic producers such as the tomato farmers complain of lack of funding, one wonders why money can not be pushed into the improvement of domestic production.
Government have on countless occasions re-iterated its premium on agriculture and keep encouraging farmers to produce for the domestic market and even for export to earn the country some foreign exchange, but not much is being done to empower the farmer to produce enough for subsistence and then for commercial purposes.
Northern Star Tomato Company is expected to be financed to buy all the produce of tomato farmers in especially the three Northern Regions while Trusty Foods Company, a private company, has for some time now been purchasing the farmers produce.
A new company based in Tema has announced its intention of buying from tomato cultivators, and this plan, if executed, is expected to save the farmers from financial constraints and the low prices from especially market queens.
The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Kwesi Ahwoi, has therefore appealed to farmers to solidify their existence by forming strong groups so as to firmly fix prices, to avoid always being at the mercies the buyers.
Meanwhile, the National Farmers and Fishermen Award Winners Association of Ghana (NFFAWAG) has cautioned tomato farmers in the country to be wary of entering into contract with companies with questionable offers for their produce. The association further alerted the farmers about some companies making mouth-watering offers to them in order to lure them into selling their produce to the companies on terms that are “too good to be true”.
Philip Abayori, President of the association, who warned the farmers against the background of an advertisement in the print media by a local tomato processing company based in Tema calling on local farmers to cultivate tomatoes for it to purchase, reminded the farmers of similar offers that were thrown at them during the last season, only for the company to renege on the agreement.
He said the perennial tomato glut over the years, especially in the Upper East Region, resulting from lack of market, was leading companies to take advantage to cheat the farmers.
In May 2008, Mr Abayori alleged that Trusty Foods signed a production agreement with the association to cultivate 5000 hectors of tomatoes that would be purchased by the company. Though under the agreement Trusty Food was suppose to pre-finance land preparation, supply of fertilizer, agro-chemical and hybrid seeds for the farmers, the company failed to comply, leaving the members of the association to use their own resources.
“With the difficulties we encountered with this company, it would be prudent if due diligence is conducted before any farmer enters into any agreement with any company.”
However, as the debate over who farmers are to sell to and whose duty it is to address the perennial glut of tomatoes during the peak harvest season rages on, investors should take note that there is potential money making venture just close to them.
