Maphlix Trust Ghana Limited, Ghana’s leading producer and exporter of potatoes, ranks sixth at the Ghana Club 100 Awards.The company, based at Tadzewu in the Ketu North Municipality of the Volta Region, also produces fresh vegetables, roots, and fruits.
The ranking at the 19th edition of the Club was an improvement from the 2019 edition where it placed 27th.
Maphlix was established in 2013 by a Ghanaian entrepreneur with significant experience in horticulture.
The company sources its produce from its farms and a network of smallholder farmers in the Region.
It has 80 green houses and over 1,300 acres of land producing vegetables, including tomatoes, cucumber, okra, and marrow vegetable (tender summer squash) for export to the European market.
The company whose potatoes meet Global G.A.P Certification standards, currently employs 142 permanent workers, with about 70 casual workers and 700 out growers, serving as off-takers of farm produce.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Dr Felix Kamassah, the founder of the company, said despite the growth it had recorded, sustaining an agribusiness amid economic challenges had not been easy.
The company, he said, had used technology and employment creation to grow the agribusiness sector, saying “during the peak of COVID-19, we rather employed more people.”
Dr Kamassah called on government to focus on agribusiness, which he said had the potential of tremendously improving the balance of trade situation in the country.
Policy interventions, he said, were needed to address poor access to finance, high freight charges, inflation, which had increased local cost of production and Cedi depreciation that translating into fewer foreign currency for importation of farm inputs such as fertilizers.
“In some other countries when you are in agribusiness, they give you a lot of opportunity for you to export and bring in more currency to help the country.
“We need such policy interventions, especially for agribusinesses that are exporting and clear out some of the taxes so that we can be able to export to earn more foreign currency,” he said.
He warned that Ghana could lose out on produce buyers to countries whose freight charges were 40 per cent lower and suggested the setting up of a national cargo airline to ease the challenges of exporters.
Companies under the Club 100 Awards are divided into 13 categories across broad sectors of agriculture, industry, and services economy.
Those who applied to be ranked for the awards undergo an eligibility analysis, which requires a company to be a limited liability company, privately owned with government interest not less than 50 per cent or must be listed on stock exchange market.
The company must also have a cumulative operating profit and should be tax compliant.
Qualified entities are then ranked based on size and profitability, growth, and Corporate Social Responsibility.
Source: GNA
