The Chamber of Agribusiness Ghana (CAG) has warned that the 20% excise duty on natural fruit juices is destroying up to 127,000 jobs across the agricultural and processing value chains, while undermining Ghana\u2019s potential to earn $1 billion annually in juice exports.<\/p>\n
In a statement released on Wednesday, February 4, 2026, CAG said the policy, introduced as a public health measure, is instead forcing juice processing factories to operate at 30-45% capacity, well below their optimal 70-85%, creating ripple effects on rural farmers who rely on these factories as reliable buyers for pineapples, oranges, mangoes, and other fruits.<\/p>\n
Anthony Morrison, Chief Executive Officer of CAG, said, \u201cThe 20% excise duty is not just a tax on juice processors; it is a direct attack on the livelihoods of 50,000 to 120,000 farming households across Ghana.<\/p>\n
Farmers face 15-30% price declines, watch 30-40% of their harvest rot in the fields, and lose the reliable markets that contract farming provides.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Chamber highlighted that women farmers, who make up 55-60% of fruit producers, are disproportionately affected. Reduced processing capacity also threatens youth employment in factory operations and contributes to rural economic decline in regions such as Eastern, Volta, and Central.<\/p>\n
CAG further warned that the excise duty is hampering Ghana\u2019s ability to compete internationally.<\/p>\n
\u201cGlobal demand for natural and functional beverages is growing at 6-8% annually. Ghana is uniquely positioned to capture $700 million to $1 billion in exports, but the current tax undermines our competitiveness,\u201d Morrison noted.<\/p>\n
The Chamber is urging the government to exempt 100% natural fruit juices from the excise duty immediately, warning that failure to act could erode jobs, farmer incomes, and Ghana\u2019s position in the global juice market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Chamber of Agribusiness Ghana (CAG) has warned that the 20% excise duty on natural fruit juices is destroying up to 127,000 jobs across the agricultural and processing value chains, while undermining Ghana\u2019s potential to earn $1 billion annually in juice exports. In a statement released on Wednesday, February 4, 2026, CAG said the policy, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123457,"featured_media":15408,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3788,3525,4181,41],"tags":[4858,4857,3927],"class_list":["post-15407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agriculture","category-economy","category-employment","category-general-news","tag-anthony-morrison","tag-chamber-of-agribusiness-ghana","tag-farmers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/123457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15407"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15409,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15407\/revisions\/15409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}