Entrepreneurs in the Small Medium Scale Enterprise (SMEs) have been urged to package their food products to promote its safe handling, storage and transportation.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), Mrs Delese Darko, while accessing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) as SME’s, required high standards in packing, and enhancing competitiveness at the industry and enterprise level by exploring opportunities for large scale production continental market access.
In her speech during the two-day workshop for entrepreneurs on product packaging in Accra, she said the aim is introducing the latest international standards in food packaging and safety to the FDA, GSA to support local brand and consumers.
Mrs Darko said as food regulators, they knew that food lasted longer and stayed fresher when packaged well.
She said the workshop would strengthen the capacity in flexibility packing choices to promote safe handling, storage and transportation of food products.
The Chief Executive Officer of GS1 Ghana, Mr Kofi Essuman, in a presentation on the topic “Overview of packaging,” said food packaging constituted the highest application in the global packaging market.
He said global packaging market size was valued at $757 billion in 2016, and was expected to reach $1,014 billion by 2023.
Mr Essuman said Asian countries were the lead in packaging on the market due to the rising demand for convenient foods, labelled products and increase in dairy products in developing countries, such as India and China.
The programme was on the theme “Building capacity in flexibility package to enhance food safety and quality for SMEs in Africa Free Trade Area.”
The programme was organised by the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) in collaboration with Epac -Ghana, Ghana Standard Authority (GSA), with support from Ecobank.
It was attended by participants across the country, from the Ghana Enterprise Agency, Ghana Export Promotion Authority, academia, Food and Drugs Authority.
