As mentioned in an earlier post, our CEO is on an economic development trip to Ghana, Africa. He is meeting with dignitaries and local farmers to discuss opportunities for exporting fresh pineapple abroad. Here is his last blog post:
Delore and Roger with local farmers.
Today we traveled to the pineapple farm with queen mother who is the founder and President of the Akuapem Mountain Women’s Forum. She is a stately woman and instrumental on this mission. We proceeded to Fiopi village, near the pineapple farm, where we met with the village chief and other elders as well as about 50 other farmers and other villagers. It was important to meet with them and receive an official welcome and to get their blessing on the opportunity to work with them. The project was warmly received. We gave them gifts for the warm welcome and proceeded to the farm. The road to the farm is up hill and treacherous-definitely a truck route. Most workers walk the road to the field.
They have about 35 acres, 22 acres are cleared and farm a little more than half. The fields produce about 24,000 pineapples per year, with 22, 000 hopefully getting sold. It is not organic as they use some chemical to add nutrients and for termites. They would like us to buy their pineapple right now so they are an eager group for sure. At the farm we were able to taste the product. I AM NOT A BIG PINAPPLE FAN, BUT IF ALL PINEAPPLE TASTED THIS SWEET I WOULD HAVE IT EVERYDAY. (In fact I am eating some right now, as they sent a pineapple with us.)
After we toured the Aburi gardens and stopped at the Aburi craft village. The village reminded me of the markets you would find in Mexico. For lunch we tried the tilapia fish, it came with head intact, but was very tasty. Tony and another companion, Kofi, had the tilapia with banku. I tasted the bancu, no taste and salty.
We headed back to our hotel in Accra and are settled in for the night. Tomorrow is Sunday so not much planned. We hope to attend church with Tony.
For more pictures and to follow Roger Reierson’s travels through Ghana, check out his blog, Developing Connections through Marketing at rogerreierson.blogspot.com.
