What started like a normal Ghanaians’ Association abroad has now become a big business enterprise and with that Ghana Cooperative (Ghanacoop) is walking with success.

The story of Ghanacop in the city Modena, north of Italy, began as one of the Ghanaians Associations in the country and in 2005 they came out with a business plan. At that time they didn’t know they were breaking new grounds, they identified a business opportunity and decided to pursue it with commitments to succeed. There were those among them who folded up when they realised there were no good returns coming but some of them digged their heels in making sacrifices in order to achieve their purpose. They kept investing their time and money and seeing their limited knowledge in business creation and management they underwent thorough training and formation in those areas. They made big sacrifices as some even stopped their jobs to fully implement their plan.

Now all those efforts are bearing fruits, infact bearing in very sweet and fresh fruits, as fresh as the ones they import from Ghana and sell in Italy.

Ghanacoop is now engaged in big business trading, importing exotic fruits, agricultural food and handicraft products from Ghana to Italy whilst exporting Italian wine, pasta and ham to Ghana.

Among its imported fruits from Ghana are pineapples, pawpaw, mangoes, coconuts as well as palm oil, plantain and yam among its agricultural products. It has links with Nordi Conad, Coop Estense and GS Carrefour, all megastores and supermarkets in Italy and each week loads of its products are imported into the country.

Last year it made a profit of one million euros and according to its President, Thomas McCarthy, Ghanacoop which employs both Italians and Ghanaians will this year hit the five miilon euros mark in gross profit.

“Ghanacoop is proof that immigrants are important resource for the social and economic developments of both their host and countries of origin”, says McCarthy, and he adds: “Three factors have contributed to our success and these are; unity, dedication and partnership”, noting the Ghanaian community is well united without tribal or ethnic discrimination.

The success of Ghanacoop has also been helped largely by its partnership with the Province of Modena and the International Organisation for Migration (I.O.M) through which it has carried out projects in Ghana helping some villages and towns with electricity and water supply and contribution of equipment to hospitals, among them Gomoa Simbrofo – a poor village situated some 90 km from Ghana’s capital, Accra.

Under its project on a 100-acre plot in Gomoa Simbrofo, Ghanacoop aims at promoting the development of social and enviromental sustainable processes for the production of corn, fruits and vegetables with biological certification.

It hopes to expand its activities by importing also from its own farm in Ghana and it’s on its plans to promote economic and social development actions that facilitates construction of schools, provision of water purification facilities, provide the communities with alternative energy from solar panels systems and also to discourage the migratory flow by offering the villagers concrete job opportunities and a constant growth of qualification.

On a more larger note it intends to go into the European market with Fair-Trade certified products.

A fixed amount of the price paid for its exotic products goes to support implementation of health projects and favouring workers communities in Ghana. It has created scholarship for their children and supports vaccination campaigns in several villages and one of the latest projects it is financing at the moment is the photo voltaic implant to provide electricity to different villages.

Ghanacoop got its activities covered on International TV station, CNN, under the program Inside Africa and been featured on Italy’s national station, RAI One. It’s activities has also received multiple recognitions – May 2006: invited to the United Nations in New York, June 2006: invited to the International Symposium on Migration and Development organised by the I.O.M in Turin, November 2006: invited to the 92nd Session of the I.O.M Council in Geneva, January 2007: received the first prize of the National Ethical Award as the best ethic project for the Italian big retailers, July 2007: invited to the first Civil Society Day of the Global Forum on Migration and Development organised by King Baudouin Foundation, Belgium in Brussels.

McCarthy is more than grateful to all co-operative bodies that has been of immense support from the begining. “Special thanks to Arcadia and Oltrelab Group for having projected the start-up of Ghanacoop together with the Council of Ghana Nationals Association in Italy (COGNAI). Today these groups are the key partners behind every activity and success of Ghanacoop”, he mentioned.

This co-operative of Ghanaians has now become a model that all immigrants communities would like to emulate and having succeeded to create such a successful enterprise, its members wants to help other immigrants in Italy come up with similar projects. “We want to promote brain return and prove that Africa can develop through its own people returning from the western countries. We would like to help all those who seek our help. Ghanacoop is ready to provide training and orientation to all Associations of immigrants interested in forming co-operatives,” McCarthy said.