“This s a Trade Fair that Ghana should participate,” – he declared Ghana’s Ambassador to Italy, His Excellency Charles Agyei-Amoama was among 29 African States Ambassadors, based in Rome, who were at an opening day of CIBUSTEC Trade Fair in the Italian city of Parma.

The 4-day Fair which would end on Saturday 20th October is exhibiting hi-tech machineries, among others, for processing of various kinds of fruits and dairy products from reception of the raw material up to the packaging of the finished product.

The city of Parma apart from being noted for famous companies like Parmalat (for milk and its products), Barilla (for pasta) and ‘Parmigiano’ Cheese is also the agricultural centre in Europe. The functional Cibus Tec Show is an event where business and research communication of agri-foodstuffs companies can come together and 90 countries are being represented which includes top managers or owners of major agri-foodstuff companies.

The Ghana Ambassador and his Associates of African Ambassadors were taken round various stands after meetings with management of the Fair. Among many companies exhibiting their products of hi-tech machines includes, FMC FOOD TECH broadly involved in machines for citrus fruits, BERTOCCHI which has turbo extractors with special tools and adjustments to suit many kinds of tropical fruits, BERTUZZI Food Processing Company which answers questions on single machine, a pilot plant or an industrial-size processing line and TEKNA which deals in valves, pumps and instrumentation for various machines in the fruit juice industry.

The Managing Director of CIBUSTEC, Ugo Calzoni, on the initiatives to attract greater number of Italians and foreign professional visitors said the goal of CIBUSTEC is to guarantee the presence of over 200 professional operators from countries which represent a real business opportunity for companies involved in the Fair. “Moreover, we have selected some countries which are soon expected to purchase technology to develop their agri-foodstuffs pipelines, aided by international financial institution. In addition we are hosting a Country Focus”, declared Calzoni.

H.E. Agyei-Amoama speaking on the meeting between the African representatives and the management of the Fair indicated that they expressed their views as to how future participation should be done to invite Industries and Firms from Africa. He again pointed out the African representation wanted to know the criteria for selection since the Fair authorities wanted to focus on some countries.

He mentioned that the whole idea of inviting the African Ambassadors was to use the Fair as a springboard for Africa to get a share of the Italian and European market. “But before we can do that,” he says, “our products must be of quality and standard.”

The Ghanaian Ambassador again pointed out that after the African delegation deliberation with Management of the Fair they accepted to allow every African country to participate but at the same time looking for quality and standard from each country. On his personal impression about the Fair with reference to Ghana, the Honourable Statesman stated that it’s a Trade Fair that Ghana should participate.

“We are trying to industrialise and when one attends such a Fair you see equipments for manufacturers from small, medium to large scale industry. This is where we can learn to upgrade our cottage industry”, he added.

According to him, he is going to advise the Ghana Government and the Association of Ghanaian Industries about the existence of such Fairs in Italy, saying he has visited a similar Fair in the city of Bari.

“The processing machines for fruits such as oranges, pineapples and pawpaw would be of special interest to Ghana Industries back home. These fruits go to waste mostly when it is harvested in abundance as there is no proper mechanism to store them and I believe some of the machines on display would be useful to even the small scale industries in Ghana. My advice to Ghanaians in Italy is: Italy is noted for small, medium and large scale enterprise and they must take advantage of this whilst they are here. The Chinese, Koreans among others have done it and we have to learn from a small beginning. I’ll advise that people concentrate in the initial stages on the minimum so that families can even operate their own business,” he stated.

The Ghanaian Ambassador further indicated that the Italian Government have been assisting Ghanaian Industries and Companies in acquiring some of these machineries. -