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The National Coordinator of the Feed Ghana Programme, Bright Demordzi, has lauded the current economic environment, describing it as stable and favourable for small-scale traders and the general public. Speaking on Channel One TV’s Face to Face with Umaru Sanda Amadu on Tuesday, November 4, Mr. Demordzi said the stability in prices was helping people plan better and manage their businesses more efficiently. “Yes, on the economic front, people are very happy because when there is stability in terms of pricing, it helps people to plan and plan very well. That is helping small-scale traders and everybody. The general economic environment is not bad at all,” he said. He noted that many Ghanaians appreciate the current price stability, emphasising that “even the fact that prices are not going up makes people very happy.” However, Mr. Demordzi pointed out that some farmers have expressed concern that stable or low food prices negatively affect their earnings. According to him, many farmers believe that when the National Democratic Congress (NDC) is in power, food prices tend to remain low, which reduces their profit margins. “Farmers always compare the value of food items to the price of cement. They say that when the price of food goes down, the price of cement does not go down proportionally, and that affects the real value of their income,” he explained. To address such challenges, Mr. Demordzi said the Feed Ghana Programme was implementing a new strategic stock system, marking the first time the National Food Buffer Stock Company has been positioned to undertake real strategic operations. He said the initiative aims to ensure that Ghana maintains a strategic food reserve capable of stabilising prices and protecting farmers’ incomes. “As an agribusiness person, one thing that is very critical is price stability. If the prices of inputs are stable, farmers will be happy,” he said. “What we are doing now is to strengthen market linkages and reduce post-harvest losses. When prices are low, we can buy and stock produce to stabilise prices, and when prices rise, we can release stock into the market to keep prices balanced.”
