Coronavirus: 80% of agribusiness firms in Ghana impacted by the pandemic – Report

The Chamber of Agribusiness Ghana (CAG) has said the operations of over 80 percent agribusiness firms in the country have been negatively impacted due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, according to its latest Agribusiness Sector Survey Report 2020.

The Chamber in its report said many businesses complained about the cut in production and supply, difficulty in meeting monthly revenue targets, payment of salaries and wages as a result in the disruptions of the sector.

Additionally, the survey noted disruptions in normal business operations had also increased their monthly business expenditure of agribusiness firms.

“One of the major challenges in the agriculture sector included rampant land litigation issues which threaten the investments of businessmen and eventually, lead them to abandon the land, resulting in huge losses,” the report noted.

The report further revealed, small-scale agribusiness firms were the hardest hit with a revenue shortfall of about 77.4 percent.

Large scale firms, on the other hand, suffered a 55.4 percent revenue loss, with medium-scale agribusinesses remaining in the middle with a recorded 75.2 percent monthly loss in revenues.

Director of Research at the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), in an interview with GhanaWeb, said it is important for the government to create an enabling environment to encourage investors to make holdings into the agriculture sector.

He added that the agriculture sector is one that can still thrive in this period of the coronavirus pandemic considering food production and availability are basic necessities of life.

Meanwhile, the annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures released by the Ghana Statistical Service in April 2020 show that the country’s largest employer – agriculture sector – grew by 4.6 percent in 2019, a 0.2 percentage point decline from that of 2018, making it the slowest growth since recording 6.1 percent growth in 2017, from a previous 2.9 percent it recorded the previous year.