Ho, Feb 4, GNA - The first shipment of natural honey from Ghana destined for the EU market has sailed out of the Tema Port on Saturday February 4.

The 18 tonne honey came from the Nkwanta District of the Volta Region and packaged under Atlas Foods Ghana Limited for markets in Ireland.

The export deal was facilitated by Atlas Foods Ghana Limited based in Ho with the support of the relevant regulatory bodies in Ghana.

Mr Kieran Lavery, Atlas Foods Managing Director, told the GNA hours before the ship set sail that David Yaw Ampong and Bernadette Baccah, Chairman and General Manager respectively of First Logistics Limited, coordinated the shipment through Hapag-Lloyd Lines represented in Ghana by Blue Funnel.

He said he was hopeful that the honey would meet the expectations of buyers to demand for more and that two more shipments were in line for the year.

Mr Lavery said he would also push honey from Ghana on to other markets in Europe, especially Germany and Holland.

He said the first shipment would be blended by the honey merchants for re-sale and for the manufacture of candies, biscuits and pharmaceutical products.

Mr Lavery, who is an Irish, called on NGOs in poverty reduction to brace themselves up for the challenge by organizing individuals and groups into production gangs to take advantage of the impending natural honey business in Ghana.

He noted that honey producers needed tutorials in managing honey making as a thriving business for maximum returns adding that his company offered producers prices based on world market trends.

He said Atlas Foods was offering opportunities for swift turnovers for producers in Ghana, selling at competitive prices, as against the laboriously slow bottle by bottle sales at somewhat uneconomic high prices.

He said the EU accreditation, a debut for Ghana, was as a result of two year of insightful pursuit by Atlas Foods.

Other African countries with the EU Accreditation to export honey to Europe are Tanzania, Uganda, Cameroon, Ethiopia and Zambia.