Induction workshop for SMEs ends in Accra

A five day induction workshop for Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s) in the food industry organised by the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) has ended in Accra.

The participants numbering 20 were taken through training and coaching programmes to enable them implement a food safety management system called the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point.

The project funded by the European Union was titled “Support to improve services to micro and small scale enterprises in the field of food safety and quality management”.

Mr Lukman Abdul-Rahim, Executive Director of NBSSI, said the main objective of the workshop was to help improve the services of SME’s in the field of Food Safety and Quality Management.

He said there is a growing concern for food quality and safety on a global scale stemmed from increased consumer awareness on their health.

He said such concerns had resulted in the growing number of regulations and standards in most world markets which producers, especially in the developing countries must meet to make their products eligible to be exported to these markets.

“Unfortunately, most SMEs in Ghana have little or no exposure on issues of product quality improvement and standardization and are also ignorant about international standards and quality requirements and are, therefore, unable to meet these standards when they attempt to export their products,” he said.

Mr Abdul-Rahim said the workshop was therefore held to help create the enabling environment for local producers especially SMEs to produce high quality products for export.

He said beneficiaries of the project would also be able to maximize export performance through the implementation of food safety and quality management in the agro-business sector.

He said the NBSSI is committed to ensure food safety in Ghana by improving the production process.

The participants were taken through topics such as quality, safety, health and environment resource, quality and quality assurance key to business success, food safety and quality management in world trade and management system documentation among others.

The participants expressed their satisfaction over the project and called for financial support to enable them expand their business.