Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Simon Coveney T.D. today continued his West Africa Trade Mission by visiting Ghana.  The Minister attended promotion events for Irish companies in the agri-food, education, energy and ICT sectors as well as delivering a keynote speech marking Ireland’s peacekeeping role in Africa.

Speaking from Accra, the Ghanaian capital, Minister Coveney said “Ghana has for many years been a peaceful country in the midst of conflict in West Africa. Ireland congratulates the people of Ghana for choosing the path of democracy and setting the bar in terms of governance in the region. It is also a country which is now firmly established as one of our key trading partners. It has particularly grown in significance in recent years such that it is now one of our primary non-EU export destinations. My visit here will be about exploring further opportunities for cooperation between Ghana and Ireland across a range of sectors from agri-food to energy to education.”

The Minister met yesterday evening with his Ghanaian counterpart, the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Hon. Fifi Kwetey. This was followed by an event today with Irish beef exporters who are doing business locally. Commenting on this event the Minister said “Expanding opportunities for Irish meat exports so that we can diversify our markets has been one of my key priorities since becoming Minister. Ghana is now a significant market for Irish meat with exports of €8m of Irish beef last year and €2m of Irish poultry. This makes Ghana one of the leading beef export destinations outside the EU after the US, Hong Kong, and the Philippines. I took the opportunity to discuss this when meeting with my Ghanaian counterpart and to raise some technical issues which I believe could facilitate even more trade”.

As with the trade mission earlier in the week, today’s trade promotion events in Accra also had a strong focus on the financial, ICT and Education sectors. Minister Coveney attended the formal signing of an agreement between the University of Limerick and the University of Ghana to facilitate further collaboration between both institutions and to develop models of cooperation in a number of areas including education and in academic research. Commenting on the event Minister Coveney said “this signing marks the first agreement between an Irish university and a university in Ghana though of course collaboration in the field of education between Ireland and Africa goes back many generations. I was delighted to attend the signing ceremony and witness the exciting potential which this agreement will bring for both institutions”

The visit to West Africa concludes tomorrow when the Minister will visit the region of Tamale in Ghana for meetings with the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and to view local agriculture initiatives which are helping to boost food security in the area. The visit to the WFP centre will be the first since the announcement in September by the Minister that his Department has committed to increasing its funding to the WFP to €60m over the next three years.

View this Press Release as a PDF: DAFMPR 218/2015 (pdf 551Kb) 

Date Released: 03 December 2015