Fruit flies make Ghana mangoes unattractive worldwide

The dream of mango farmers in the country to go commercial particularly for export is marred by a huge challenge: this is because the prevalence of fruit-flies in many agro-ecological zones throughout the West African sub-region has resulted in infestation of the fruit, making them unsuitable for the international market.

The international mango market community, which includes Europe, South Africa and the United States, has branded the West Africa region as a fruit-fly endemic zone, and thereby refuse to patronise mangoes from countries in the zone -- including Ghana.

Exported mango containers are often rejected at the entry ports of the international markets due to fruit-fly infestation and other sanitary issues.

Mango in Ghana is targeted as the next non-traditional export crop that is expected to fetch the highest foreign exchange for the country and replace cocoa, but infestation by the fruit-flies has mostly caused rejection of mango consignments from Ghana -- to the extent of sometimes imposing a ban on imports from Ghana.

The Mediterranean fruit-fly, ceratitis capitata [Wiedemann], is one of the world’s most destructive fruit pests. These destructive flies infest fruits like mango, pawpaw, cashew, garden eggs, and watermelon among others. Studies have revealed that the species originated in sub-Saharan African.

These came to light during a one-day sensitisation seminar held for Kintampo Mango Farmers Association (KIMFA) in the Brong Ahafo Region. The clinic, a brainchild of Business Sector Advocacy Challenges (BUSAC) Fund, was designed to pursue an advocacy action geared toward finding an antidote to the fruit-fly menace bedeviling the mango industry in Ghana, or West Africa for that matter. The gathering focused on “Improving Ghana’s Fruit Industry Image through Fruit-fly Control".

For some time now, many efforts have been made to arrest the situation in the sub-region, since it is a zonal canker. Since 2008, the West African Fruit-Fly Initiative (WAFFI) -- jointly financed by the World Bank, the European Union and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) -- has piloted fruit-fly surveillance and mitigation protocols in seven countries including Ghana.

Notwithstanding efforts rolled-out to control the flies, the fruit-flies are still prevalent in the system. The situation continues to deprive mango farmers in the country access to international mango markets, in spite of the individual huge cost incurred in fighting the fly.

Sources say farmers are losing the fight largely because the fruit-fly has a wide range of hosts and also it migrates across mango producing countries in the sub-region; therefore the fight must be a shared responsibility among West African states.

The mango farmers at the meeting appealed to government and other relevant stakeholders to collaborate with sister-countries on the ticket of ECOWAS to find a viable solution to the problem.

They further appealed that government, as a matter of urgency, should institute a mass-spraying programme for mangoes as pertains in the cocoa sector -- saying the move would serve as a stop-gap measure pending the regional body finding a lasting solution to the fruit-fly hazard.