The Israeli Trade and Economic Mission in Ghana in partnership with the Israeli Export Institute has introduced Ghanaian investment and business advisory companies to top Israeli agriculture companies and their technologies.

The mission in the country, in partnership with the Israeli Export Institute, is leveraging on the success story in the country of Agritop, an Israeli greenhouse village technology expert, to introduce other top Israeli agriculture turnkey companies and their technologies to Ghanaians.

Wooing

The mission, as part of its deliberate effort at wooing Ghanaians in the agricultural sector to do business with Israeli investors, last Friday organised an investment forum for 30 top Ghanaian investment and business advisory companies in the agriculture and finance sector to explore the opportunities of partnering those Israeli companies or doing business with them.

Apart from the exposure, the event created an opportunity for the Israeli and Ghanaian business people to network and held business to business (B2B) meeting albeit virtual.

Participating companies

Five of such Israeli companies took turns via zoom to introduce their companies, which are mostly technologically-driven and what they stand to offer for the agricultural sector in Ghana.

They are N-Drip Micro Irrigation Company, a gravity-powered micro-irrigation solution for large-scale fields; Eshet Eilon Company, an innovative agricultural equipment developer and Agritask Company Ltd, a holistic data-driven agronomic management platform.

The rest are Segular Agro, a unique blend of family tradition and daring innovation and Agritop Ltd, a greenhouse technology expert, which also offers capacity building opportunities to interested institutions and individuals.

Before the presentations, the Farmer Manager at the Dawhenya Greenhouse Village, Mr Anthony Hills, who conducted the participants round the various greenhouse tunnels, explained that the farms were digitised and watering was computerised.

Rationale

Explaining the importance of the event, the Ambassador of Israel to Ghana, Mrs Shani Cooper-Zubida, said the forum was to expose the Israeli technology in agriculture to the Ghana entrepreneurs in the agribusiness sector.

“We think that in order to promote trade, we cannot only focus on export and import, the main thing for us is to understand Ghanaians and match it with the capabilities of Israeli companies,” she explained, adding that it was the first-ever forum on agriculture to have been organised by the embassy.

The ambassador was excited that both sides had expressed interest, particularly those from Israel, who were willing to learn the climate, the soil and understand the needs and establish partnership with local companies in order to sell their products in the country.

She explained that the embassy prioritised agricultural cooperation between Israel and Ghana, stressing that in setting the policy of the embassy, “we first looked at the policy of the government of Ghana and then tried to match it to the capability and added value of Israel”.

Extension officers

Mrs Cooper-Zubida announced that the embassy in collaboration with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture would soon organise a tailor-made training session for extension officers during which Israel would sell its know-how to the Ghanaian officers.

She said the training session, which would be held via online, would give the ministry the opportunity to identify challenging areas that it would like to be addressed.

“These challenges would be solved during the training session, so, at the end of the day, they will have a lot of information and attain the know-how technology about extension services in Israel,” Mrs Cooper-Zubida told the Daily Graphic.