{"id":1,"date":"2022-06-19T04:08:54","date_gmt":"2022-06-19T04:08:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipfghana.com\/?p=1"},"modified":"2022-06-30T10:42:50","modified_gmt":"2022-06-30T10:42:50","slug":"there-is-no-shortage-of-ideas-in-ghana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipfghana.com\/index.php\/2022\/06\/19\/there-is-no-shortage-of-ideas-in-ghana\/","title":{"rendered":"There is no shortage of ideas in Ghana"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Even as a child, Georgina Koomson dreamed of being successful with her own hands in her home country of Ghana.&nbsp;Today she runs a successful business and exports tea and spices all over the world.&nbsp;The German Development Ministry was able to help in the initial phase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Successful founder: Georgina Koomson has 26 permanent employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Photo: Tobias Hase<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Georgina Koomson captivates a conversation partner with the first sentence.&nbsp;Cheerfulness, energy and empathy resonate in her words.&nbsp;It is a pleasant mixture of the professionalism of a successful entrepreneur and the euphoria for the African continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During her &#8220;National Service&#8221; &#8211; a kind of community service that is obligatory for all students in Ghana &#8211; she got to know the conditions of agriculture in her home country firsthand.&nbsp;They were not satisfied with either the working conditions or the yields from the fields.&nbsp;She wanted to do better with her own company.&nbsp;However, due to a lack of capital, their project was threatened with an end before it could really get started.&nbsp;&#8220;We don&#8217;t lack ideas in Ghana, but rather concrete start-up support,&#8221; says Koomson, summarizing the situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Internship at a German spice manufacturer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>She presented her idea for the Krooms company in numerous places.&nbsp;She finally received the necessary support through a program sponsored by the Federal Development Ministry.&nbsp;In 2001, the Ghanaian completed an internship at a spice manufacturer in Germany.&nbsp;&#8220;I was able to gain valuable practical experience here, which I still benefit from today,&#8221; she says, looking back on the weeks in Schw\u00e4bisch Gm\u00fcnd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Krooms still works closely with the German Development Ministry&#8217;s&nbsp;Market Oriented Agriculture Program&nbsp;(&nbsp;MOAP&nbsp;).&nbsp;&#8221;&nbsp;MOAP&nbsp;supports local companies in optimizing manufacturing processes, certifying and further developing production,&#8221; says Georgina Koomson.&nbsp;100,000 jobs were created in Ghana in this way.&nbsp;The yields of agricultural products could be more than doubled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bundesregierung.de\/resource\/image\/1859986\/16x9\/1023\/575\/eebaa6918e01725fa9316ef2e2f44944\/iM\/2021-02-19-gewuerze-aus-ghana.jpg\" alt=\"The picture shows different spices in bowls.\"\/><figcaption>From Ghana to the world: Krooms now exports its spices to many countries.Photo: Tobias Hase<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Excellent and sustainable agriculture<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether pepper, mallow, ginger or caraway &#8211; today Krooms covers the entire process from cultivation and harvest to processing and marketing to shipping.&nbsp;26 employees are permanently employed in the company, plus almost 30 seasonal workers.&nbsp;Cultivating and harvesting the 75 hectares of cultivated land in eastern Ghana provide another 800 women with a regular income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition, only organic farming is practiced on the farms.&nbsp;For this successful approach to sustainability, the company has already been awarded the title of &#8220;Best Regional Farm&#8221; by the Ghanaian Farmers&#8217; Association.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Cosmetic products are particularly in demand<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>After the harvest, further processing and shipping take place in the capital region of Accra.&nbsp;Here, Georgina Koomson&#8217;s demands are just as high as when it comes to cultivation: &#8220;In addition to a high-quality and organically certified range, it&#8217;s also about avoiding production waste,&#8221; she emphasizes resolutely.&nbsp;The range on offer is correspondingly diverse: in addition to various types of tea and spreads, she reports on the internationally popular cosmetic products based on hibiscus blossoms,&nbsp;shea&nbsp;nuts and lemongrass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Krooms makes a natural insect repellent from lemongrass processing waste and is committed to sustainability.&nbsp;&#8220;In the near future I would also like to make briquettes from the shells of the&nbsp;shea&nbsp;nuts,&#8221; says Georgina Koomson, looking to the future.&nbsp;But the energy she radiates reveals that it&#8217;s not the only plan for her company.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Even as a child, Georgina Koomson dreamed of being successful with her own hands in her home country of Ghana. Today she runs a successful business and exports tea and spices all over the world. The German Development Ministry was able to help in the initial phase.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":574,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agriculture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipfghana.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipfghana.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipfghana.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipfghana.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipfghana.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ipfghana.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":703,"href":"https:\/\/ipfghana.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions\/703"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipfghana.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipfghana.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipfghana.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipfghana.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}