Meeting the People in Ghana

Jan McGregor writes about her recent trip, organised by Traidcraft.

These tours are organised by Saddle Skedaddle in partnership with Traidcraft, and take you to meet the people producing fair trade products in the developing world. I have previously been to India and Peru, but this time it was Ghana.

I was in Ghana for 12 days and visited several projects as well as seeing some sights including the Independence Arch (Ghana was the first African country to gain independence in 1957) and the castle where 50 million slaves were held before being shipped to the West Indies.

We visited

• Serendipalm, where palm oil is grown and processed.
• Kuapa Kokoo where the cocoa beans that are used to make Divine Chocolate are grown.
• New Koforidua , Africa’s first Fair Trade town.
• VREL (Volta River Estates Ltd) where the first Fair trade Bananas sold in the UK are grown.

The Serendipalm company works with more than 300 small farmers who enjoy a higher than market rate for their fresh fruit bunches from which the palm oil is extracted, better working conditions as well as a small premium. They often used this premium to plant other crops on their farms for their own consumption. Palm Oil trees originated in West Africa, so there is not the devastating effect on the rain forest, as seen in the Far East.