- 24-Hour Economy Puts Ghana’s Horticulture Industry on Export Footing
Ghana is seeking to use its 24-hour economy programme to transform horticulture from a fragmented agricultural activity into a commercially integrated export industry, with government placing greenhouses, cold-chain infrastructure, logistics and air cargo at the centre of a new agricultural growth model.
Augustus “Goosie” Obuadum Tanoh, Presidential Advisor on the 24-hour Economy, said the strategy was designed to move agriculture beyond primary production towards value chains capable of generating foreign exchange, creating employment and attracting private investment.
“Producing is not the same as building an industry,” Mr Tanoh said at the opening of the 14th Ghana Garden and Flower Show.
The distinction goes to the heart of one of Ghana’s longstanding agricultural challenges. Higher production does not automatically translate into higher farmer incomes, stronger exports or greater industrial capacity when producers remain disconnected from storage, processing, transport, finance and international markets.
Government’s proposed horticulture strategy is therefore attempting to connect those missing links through the 24-Hour Economy and Accelerated Export Development Programme.
“This is what we are working at through the 24-Hour Economy and Accelerated Export Development Program, connecting production to processing, logistics, and markets, and building the enabling systems within which competitive industries such as our flower industry can grow,” Mr Tanoh said.
Infrastructure sits at the centre of that ambition.
Under the government’s Shiqpon peri-urban agricultural programme, greenhouse and micro-irrigated production are expected to be connected to aggregation centres, cold storage and markets, creating a more reliable supply chain capable of serving both domestic consumers and export buyers.
That infrastructure is particularly important for horticultural products such as fruits, vegetables and flowers, whose commercial value can decline rapidly when they are not harvested, cooled, packaged and transported within tightly controlled periods.
Cold storage, in that context, becomes part of the production system rather than an optional logistical service.
The proposed Tamale Air Cargo Hub is expected to play a particularly important role in opening northern Ghana to high-value export markets.
“The Tamale Air Cargo Hub aims to strengthen logistics for high-value agricultural exports in the cut flower, vegetable, and fruit value chains,” Mr Tanoh said.
Government is also working with a private investor on a proposed cut-flower corridor along the Daboya-Singa pathway, with flowers produced along the corridor expected to be airlifted through Tamale to markets in Europe, Ghana and West Africa, the Gulf and other destinations.
The potential economic benefits stretch well beyond farms.
A functioning horticulture export industry could generate employment across greenhouse construction, production, packaging, warehousing, road transport, aviation, food processing, freight forwarding and distribution while creating another source of foreign exchange for an economy still heavily dependent on a relatively narrow group of commodity exports.
Kenya offers an indication of the opportunity.
Mr Tanoh said Kenya earned US$556 million from flower exports last year, while Ghana exported approximately US$75 million worth of mangoes to 42 markets in 2024.
The comparison exposes both Ghana’s potential and its current limitations.
The country already produces commodities capable of reaching international markets, but it does not yet have the depth of logistics, aggregation and commercial coordination required to convert individual agricultural products into globally competitive industries.
The domestic market could provide an early platform from which producers build that scale.
“On Valentine’s Day, we import roses from all over the place to be able to give to our loved ones. So we do have a domestic market. We do have domestic demand,” Mr Tanoh said.
Import substitution could allow local growers to establish reliable production volumes, strengthen quality standards and gain commercial experience before expanding more aggressively into export markets.
But exporting flowers, vegetables and other perishables by air presents a different economic challenge.
Air freight is substantially more expensive than road or sea transport, meaning Ghana must focus on products valuable enough to absorb higher logistics costs while ensuring sufficiently large cargo volumes to make regular services commercially sustainable.
The success of the Tamale hub will therefore depend on considerably more than aircraft availability.
A competitive export ecosystem will require refrigerated collection centres, quality control, packaging, customs clearance, certification, freight forwarding and reliable connections to overseas buyers.
Without those complementary systems, an airport capable of handling cargo may still struggle to generate the consistency international horticultural markets demand.
Government’s wider Volta Economic Corridor proposal reflects the same integrated approach, with plans to link agricultural production, industry and logistics around the Volta Lake while incorporating renewable energy, climate-smart production, efficient land and water use, ecological restoration and lower waste and emissions.
That environmental element could become increasingly important as international buyers demand greater traceability and sustainability from agricultural suppliers.
For investors, the opportunity could extend into irrigation technology, cold-chain logistics, warehousing, packaging, agricultural finance, air freight, food processing and digital farm-management systems.
The harder challenge for government, however, will be execution.
Infrastructure alone will not create an export industry. Farmers will require affordable finance, reliable energy, quality inputs, technical expertise and internationally recognised certification. Exporters will need predictable customs procedures and competitive logistics costs, while private investors will require confidence that the policy framework will survive individual political cycles.
The 24-hour economy therefore faces an early test in horticulture: whether it can convert multiple infrastructure projects and policy initiatives into a functioning commercial ecosystem.
Ghana’s opportunity is no longer simply to grow more crops. It is to capture more value from each crop produced by linking farms to storage, processing, logistics, finance and international customers.
If government can make those connections work, horticulture could become an important pillar of export diversification, generating foreign exchange, reducing dependence on imported horticultural products and creating thousands of jobs across an increasingly integrated value chain.
The ultimate measure of success, however, will not be how many greenhouses are constructed or how many cargo aircraft land in Tamale. It will be whether Ghanaian farmers and businesses can consistently deliver competitive products to demanding markets on time, at the required quality and at prices that allow the entire value chain to prosper.
