YARA Ghana Sensitize Farmers And Distributors Against Use of Fake Fertilizers

A member of the Government Fertilizer Subsidy Program, Yara Ghana through the Retail Sales Manager, Mr. Henry Otoo-Mensah has cautioned the six member companies which are mandated to import fertilizer into the country to be aware of imposters who are dealing in fake fertilizers to destroy their reputation in the market. According to him the certified importers should be on the lookout for those fake distributors who are selling fake fertilizers, sometimes in the brand name of the genuine distributors and importers to farmers. In an interview with Peacefmonline.com, Mr. Henry Otoo-Mensah said that farmers are shying away from the use of the genuine fertilizers because the complains he has received indicate that their NPK and other genuine fertilizers which the farmers have been using have begun changing in the market. He feared that the trust the farmers have in the certified importers is fading out since there is no clear distinction between the fake fertilizers and the genuine ones; adding that the difficulty in this case is that some companies, which one of them has been arraigned before court have been rebranding the good fertilizers into their sacks and selling them as their own products. In view of these happenings in the agro-chemical market, Mr. Henry Otoo-Mensah has introduced the strategy Yara Ghana has been using to arrest the fake distributors to the other certified importers; in that they should use special marks on their sacks and also give certificate to all their distributors in the country. He therefore called on farmers in the country to buy products from their distributors who have their certificate to sell the recommended products; stressing that the farmers should insist on the certificate before they buy any product from them. He revealed that through the engagement of the Ghana Police, a Kumasi based agro-chemical company owned by one Ernest Kwesi Appiah, a former distributor of Yara Ghana has been arrested for deceiving the farmers as he has been caught changing the sacks of Yara Ghana fertilizer into his own sacks to claim ownership of the product. He however sent a word of caution to the distributors and farmers who are indulging in this bad practice to desist from such behaviour because measures have been put in place to arrest any perpetrator who will be caught. Mr. Henry Otoo-Mensah has assured Ghanaians and given advice to the certified importers in the country to continue the work which has been begun by Yara Ghana to sensitize the Farmers and distributors in order to create awareness of the imposters and the fake fertilizers which is destroying the genuine ones in the market.