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UNIDO’s Export Competitiveness Approach Boosting KOBS Farms Business Growth and Innovation
Ishmael Boafo faced many challenges as a mango farmer and processor for many years trying to export his mangoes and break through the competition with his processed fruit products.
Resolved to make a living from agribusiness' and inspired many of the youths in the Somanya communities rather than just feeding his family with his farm products, he strived to succeed.
Despite his constant struggles to meet the standardization in fresh export processing, poor fruit quality which limits the volumes for fresh export, including high freight charges that make pricing not competitive and accessing the right financial resources from banks asking for huge collaterals, he embraced UNIDO’s stringent and innovative agribusiness and cluster models to boost his business.
“It’s been an awesome journey so far with WACOMP-Ghana as far as my agribusiness enterprise is concerned. First, the outlook of our dried fruit packaging has received a magnificent makeover and our website to connect to other buyers upgraded, thanks to WACOMP. Our products have now the desired appearance to conquer not just local markets but also supermarkets in Europe and other destinations in the international markets
Through the European Union-financed West Africa Competitiveness Programme (WACOMP), UNIDO provided the interventions he needed to sustain his mango exports and KOBS Farms processed fruit brands to meet required local and international standards.
Mr. Ishmael Boafo, CEO of KOBS Farms
To ensure that KOBS Farms meets the standardization in fresh export processing, the UNIDO team took the workers through Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and various harvesting and post-harvest training to enhance the farm's conformity to standards and GMPs.
“Through the WACOMP Sub-Contracting Matching Scheme, we not only received training to process and plant the fruits and process the fruits in safer conditions but also secured a brand new 500kg fruit dehydrator and my drying capacity has increased from 1.5 tons to 2 tons per batch. My cluster network, the Yilo Krobo mango farmers association also benefited from Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and business management organized by the WACOMP – Ghana. These were particularly important, as they helped us with the required knowledge to manage our various farming enterprises,” he confirmed.
Connecting to International Markets:
As part of connecting beneficiaries of the fruits cluster to international markets, Ishmael Boafo was selected to be part of a delegation to connect to potential buyers in Morrocco by UNIDO in 2023 and was part of the members of the Mango cluster supported to participate in Fruit Logistica fair in 2023 and 2024. He was able to follow up on leads and now also exports to Morrocco.
“I took samples along to meet potential customers in a trade mission to Morocco with WACOMP most of them expressed interest, so after we received full certifications of products to enable us to start export, we shipped over 20 containers of fresh mangoes during the season of November 2023 to January 2024,” he revealed
“Our fresh mangoes and pineapples have also been exported to Antwerp, Belgium and Morocco and I met these customers through the international fruit fair participation in Berlin, Germany through WACOMP-Ghana and we intend to intend to ship to all the destinations, particularly our fresh produce to Europe, the Gulf and Africa and penetrate the American markets as well with our dried products,” he added.
“WACOMP supported the registering of our product through the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) and provided platforms to market my farm products in Europe. Our international trade fair participation trip gave me firsthand knowledge about what the markets demand, and we now produce to meet their demand. The opportunity to participate in Fruit Logistica for instance gave me a huge boost in my fresh exports business and helped me to meet with real buyers. I also signed supplier contracts with buyers outside Ghana and I have since been shipping and having no issues with payments from buyers,
KOBS Farms workers packing mangoes at the pack house in preparation for exports
Sustaining Employment:
“After UNIDO strengthened the operations of KOBS Farms and built their competitiveness, the company now hires more hands to support their business in the Somanya and surrounding Communities, creating employment for many teaming youths who are unemployed while increasing their profits and income.
“Every harvesting season allows us to employ a lot more women and youth for our fresh export business. 90% of our employees are from the communities we operate creating employment for many more youths in the Yilo Krobo districts. Additionally, we have achieved a significant 90% reduction in post-harvest losses and entered new markets while also boosting our credibility and consumer trust through the approved standards which also contributed to our success in increasing our revenue by 50%, moving us from making $100,000 per mango season to $200,000 per mango season. I am forever grateful to WACOMP Ghana, UNIDO and the European Union for exposing us to the real world of fruit export competitiveness.
KOBs Farms was registered in 2015 as a limited liability company. The company is now a GLOBALGAP-certified agribusiness involved in general farming and the packaging of fresh fruits, processed fruits and vegetables mainly for export.
Ishmael Boafo at one of WACOMP's Exhibition displaying his products
Ishmael Boafo with the European Union Ambassador to Ghana , H.E. Mr. Irchad Razaaly at the mango pack house during a visit by the UNIDO and EU Delegation
