The business opportunity for chili peppers in Ghana is to establish a nucleus farm operation with outgrower
relationships to export Legon 18 and Bird’s Eye Chili peppers to European markets. This opportunity allows investors to take advantage of Ghana’s strengths in chili pepper production. Readily available, inexpensive land with ample water resources located close to Kotoka International Airport (KIA) provide the first
set of key attributes that Ghana has to offer. The well-developed international and regional transportation network in Ghana, in addition to the experienced and organized local farmers, are important benefits to the potential chili investor. Chili pepper is also known as a high-value agricultural product, which tends to require 2 to 4 times more labor than cereal crops. Such labor intensiveness provides great opportunities for Ghana. The official minimum wage in Ghana is GH¢ 3.11 per day, although farms typically pay in the rangeof GH¢ 3-5 per day $2.22-$3.57) and GH¢ 150 ($107) per month for agricultural laborers.
Transportation System
Ghana is a transportation hub of West Africa to Europe. KIA is only 6 hours flight time from most major European destinations. Nucleus farmers can take advantage of the system of major roadways between nucleus farm operations from as far as 4 hours from the airport. Air freight costs from Ghana are significantly lower than from other parts of Africa, providing Ghana with a competitive advantage versus other vegetable and chili exporters, such as Kenya and Uganda. Freight costs to the UK, for example, are $1.10 per kilogram by Air Ghana compared to Kenyan costs of $1.90 per kilogram.
Currently, Ghanaian farmers and exporters do not use cold chain transportation or storage to preserve the
quality of chili peppers. Yet, they are able to provide fresher chili peppers with a longer shelf life of 1 week
than peppers from other countries, which usually have only a 3 day shelf life. Land Acquisition– Ghana boasts vast amounts of available, fertile land close to water resources. However, foreign investors can find the process of negotiating land leases daunting due to the traditional systems in place in many agricultural areas. Price and terms will be directly negotiated between investors and land owners, which may be traditional authorities. MiDA and its partners provide critical assistance in locating attractive land and
facilitating the process with local authorities.
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