Brief History

Over the years, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (EKN) have supported the Horticulture Sector in Ghana through several programs. GhanaVeg, which later became HortiFresh is one of such programme. This particular program was in operation for a decade. See https://www.hortifresh.org/ for more about that program’s goals and their
outcome. After Hortifresh ended, Ghana Netherlands Business and Culture Council (GNBCC) which is a business platform of Dutch and Ghanaian companies proposed through its Private Sector Development (PSD) project to unite MSMEs within the horticulture value chain to engage under one business platform for a common interest. This platform become known as the Horticulture Business Platform (HBP). The Vision of the Horticulture Business Platform (HBP) is to become a business platform that represents the interest of all actors along the Ghanaian Horticulture value chain with the ability to influence national policy decisions. The mission is to become a membership-led business platform representing all actors’ interests along the Ghanaian Horticulture value chain.

Set-up and Formation
HBP is setup by a core team of sector players selected from various segments of the horticulture value chain. This core team decides on activities and direction of the platform and seeks the support of partners on their activities. The formation of HBP started in April 2023 with a series of sensitization workshops in Accra, Kumasi, Ho, and Tamale where over 220 SMEs and various Horticulture value chain actors were interested in such a business platform and signed up. The business platform partnered with IDH on 22nd May 2024 and have commenced with organizing a series of activities, noticeable among these activities are the fruits and vegetable fairs. After the launch, HBP is now working actively with a Dutch organization Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH) on market access for members. The collaboration with IDH is to create market access for sector players and bridge the gap
between producers, exporting and offtakes in the sector.

Activities
One of the areas of interest for most sector players in the value based on stakeholder engagement is ACCESS TO MARKET and a collaborative platform for B2B and B2C networking. To achieve this, HBP is working with sector players in organizing a series of fruit and vegetable fairs. HBP is supporting Ghana Vegetables to organize the 8th edition of the fruits and vegetable fair which is planned for September this year at the Kwame Nkrumah Mesualum from the 5 to the 7th.of September 2024 – Click here to join ongoing activities. 

Mini fruits and vegetable fairs have already been organized in Accra (Adenta) and Sunyani, and some are planned for Tamale and Ho later in the year. Welcome to join the platform. The platform is looking to have membership from all sectors of the horticulture value chain (farm input suppliers and service providers, farmers/producers, farm mechanization service providers, transporters, cold chain operators, aggregators, processors, marketers and retailers) and we entreat all players within the sector to join the platform and let share ideas on ways to grow the sector together. You can reach out to the project coordinator; Barnabas Apom at barnabas@gnbcc.net or WhatsApp at 0245379944 to be part of the platform and its activities.