Ropryn Company Limited has installed a cold storage facility as one of its major deliverables under the HortiFresh-Ropryn partnership. The storage facility has a capacity of about 12MT which will address post-harvest losses of the company’s produce purchased from outgrowers.

Before the installation of this storage facility, the company used to delay harvesting of produce purchased from its outgrowers which resulted in about 20% loss of produce due to deterioration of produce quality. Ropryn supplies to the high end market where quality is an important attribute. The situation affected productivity and cash flow of the company as well as its outgrowers since they could not commence preparation for replanting as harvesting has not been completed. To mitigate this challenge and meet farmers half way, Ropryn had to pay for the produce and agree on some terms with outgrowers to keep the produce on the farm for a period before harvesting.

 The cold storage facility is the second phase of an earlier cold chain refrigerated van also purchased under this project in September 2019 to aid in maintaining freshness & quality of fruits & vegetables from the point of dispatch to customers and supermarkets.

Managing Director of Ropryn Company Limited, Mr. Prince Manu indicated that the facility has come very handy and will position the company to receive significant volumes from its outgrowers, without the fear of post-harvest losses anymore. “I believe this will reduce postharvest losses drastically and increase farmers’ turnover as early harvesting will be done to give way to farmers to prepare their land for another planting cycle. I am optimistic this will positively improve their livelihood as well”.

The facility was installed by Celtic Cooling Ghana Limited and with a 50% co-funding support from HortiFresh.