Abstract:
The study was designed to assess the problems faced by agro-based businesses. It specifically examined the major constraints facing the establishment, operations and marketing of agro-business in Nsawam Adoagyiri Municipality. The study adopted the quantitative survey as its research design/approach, which according to Ahiadeke (2008) is a data collection method which requires asking people, referred to as respondents for information using either verbal or written questions. The study chose Blue Skies Products Ghana Limited, one of the thriving agro-based industries located in Nsawam, for the case study and consequently retrieved 85 out of the targeted 100 workers as the recovered sample size. The relative importance index (RII) was used to rank the various challenges that face agro-based industries.
The study concludes that the problems associated with establishing agro-based companies include the depreciation of the Cedi and other micro-economic issues, limited access to credit, high interest rates and fluctuating exchange rates, high transportation costs, a lack of support facilities such as tax mitigation and raw materials of poor quality and unreliable supply, in a descending order of importance. Similarly, the operational challenges include the depreciation of the Cedi and other micro-economic issues, inconsistent power supply, insufficient supply of raw materials, lack of bigger market to sell produce, and port congestion/high clearing charges. The marketing challenges include depreciation of the Cedi and other micro-economic issues, and the lack of a bigger market to sell produce emerged topmost while the financial markets, failure to adapt to changes, the failure to search out for prospective market niches were the problems that needed urgent redress.
The study therefore recommends that government should address the frequent power outages and the foreign exchange problems in order to position agro-based industries to be efficient in the delivery of quality products and the creation of employment for young people. Also, the local assemblies should promote integrated industrialization by ensuring that agro-industries combine a mix of employment generation and diversification of occupations together with land reforms, reorientation of the credit system and massive public investment in rural infrastructure.
