Tomatoes and greed – the exodus of Ghana's farmers | DW Documentary

[Music] tomatoes they could be ghana's red gold the soil is ideal and they've been cultivated in the country for decades yet ghana's tomato factories now stand empty and farmers are opting to leave the country the reason is that tomatoes have become gambling chips in global trade policy as have other products africa is a lucrative market shipments of canned tomatoes milk powder and frozen chicken from industrialized nations promise huge profits [Music] global trade policies are destroying domestic markets and forcing people to leave their countries edward for one no longer harvests tomatoes in ghana but in italy under appalling conditions [Music] so ghana built up its tomato industry after gaining independence in 1957. the country was keen to develop its economy and utilize its own natural resources today all of ghana's tomato processing plants have shut down including this one in poilugu there are many reasons an unstable power grid unsuitable tomato varieties and global trade policy italy china and other countries are dumping canned and processed tomatoes on ghana they still look fresh that's why when i come i'm i'm security i sleep when i'm not tight i go to fresh water and come nobody asked me that i felt it's a bit good for me and for everybody so i have to do it this everywhere at the party so it shows that the party is still alive it's not completely if you see the way the tomatoes was wrapped lying down there no market and this factory too was not working so i was just crying vincentattinga now grows onions instead of tomatoes he also used to work at the factory he and other former workers still come here they can't bear the thought of giving it up this factory once provided a livelihood to an entire region i knew the secret of the factory i know the importance of the factory because if this factory is working a lot of people are getting jobs so as it has clues it's very sad [Music] and everything is working there is no any fear that these machines are not working i'm here all the time it gives us headache that you have something that could have touched lives is there sitting with you and not working it's something that is so frustrating if this factory is workable again it is going to be the light of the nov we still hang take care of the police but we think one day one day hello i want to speak to the minister of treat yeah please say this call is coming from uh northeast at one to his factory balugu if you could do something like the italian tomatoes the chinese tomatoes that they import into the country because we have good quality tomatoes in ghana if you can support us a lot we can also do much so that the fact will sustain yes sir okay i hear you thank you sir even if the minister of trade were on the line he wouldn't be able to simply call a halt to tomato imports trade policies are a global competition and the more powerful players stand a better chance at accessing the most lucrative markets it's the people on the ground who lose out benedicta afrifa is a tomato farmer in turbodom in the middle of one of ghana's main tomato production regions the many day laborers looking to be hired during the harvest season attest to widespread unemployment even at the busiest time of year some won't find work [Music] nearly half of ghana's population lives from agriculture a robust tomato growing industry would boost growth in rural areas nowhere is this industry more likely to flourish than here in the country's fertile middle belt but now that factories are no longer buying locally grown produce farmers are becoming increasingly worried benedict grows tomatoes on a hectare of land a tank of water costs 120 cds 20 we have to buy water every day for about a month and a half until the rain comes we have a lot of problems which makes it hard to survive in this country crops grow in abundance here the farmers could cultivate even more land and employ more workers but they lack funds if they want to buy seed and fertilizer and pay for irrigation water they need to take out loans we don't have money for fertilizer everything's expensive we can't sell our harvest and end up in debt i have a wife and children to care for that's why i'll have to head to the desert and try my luck elsewhere people who make it to europe have better lives than we do if the chance comes today or tomorrow i'll head to the desert my farm is failing and the bank wants its money back now that the factories are closed farmers such as benedicta have to sell their produce to the market queens who sell it on in the cities there's a surplus of produce during the harvest season so the farmers have to sell at rock bottom prices i asked for 320 cds they offered 270 and said others are giving even less at this price i won't earn anything for 500. two weeks ago we sold these crates for 550 cds and the big ones were 700. now the crates can go for as little as 60 or even 50 cds just if the market is bad like today we farmers have to give our produce away we sell at whatever price they'll give us [Music] tomatoes are a food staple in ghana they account for 40 percent of spending on vegetables middle class canadians like their tomatoes canned ghana could meet at least a portion of its demand itself but the canned tomatoes here on the market are not domestic ones some are from china some are from italy some are from spain some are from the state would be very happy if we have a company here in ghana that we produce our own tomatoes we can them instead of people going to import it and bringing it here and spending a whole lot of money there when they give that money to the country it helps the country to develop benedict's husband has gone to italy hoping to earn money to help support the family to pay for the children's school fees and also so they can invest in a house and a well to irrigate their crops my husband can earn more there than in ghana he sends money every month for me and our two children men and coach see everyone's your money thousands here in the village it's obvious which families have relatives in europe they're the ones whose homes are made of concrete despite the problems besetting the industry many here continue to grow tomatoes benedict's house is still under construction for now she's still paying rent and i'd be more so usually because i knew the easy way some prefer canned tomatoes because they're more convenient you just add water and they're ready but i prefer fresh ones fresh ones now i am more important said we should tint and they're all ready to set out to the desert my husband is in europe and is making money and i'm working here that's how we manage and the children can go to school we also use his money to pay rent and part of it to complete our house if he were here it would be very hard for us i'm always glad to see people leave and try their luck elsewhere um [Applause] he's in italy he worked on an apple farm later on a tomato plantation and now he hurts animals [Music] most ghanaian migrants live in other west african countries many also live in the u.s and canada and in europe for ghanaian farmers there's no legal route to europe most pass through the sahara desert and then cross the mediterranean according to the international organization for migration or iom sixteen thousand ghanaians took this path to italy in the last five years many african migrants end up in southern italy the tomatoes grown here are processed and sold in cans including at low prices in ghana with production heavily subsidized italian tomatoes have a competitive advantage over local goods in africa the seasonal workers from africa actually contribute to the problem by working for rock bottom wages which further lowers production costs few of them have residence permits the day laborers are exploited by mafia organizations recruited by agents known as caporali these middlemen pay them per crate after they deducted a commission foreign [Music] have you ever seen italian man doing this kind of work no farm for this italian no farm all italy all from her to that no farm italian man is italian they work on the machine i do tormentors for ghana and here i still do tomatoes we are not working like italy ghana you pick it one one which you ride and live the everyday my father is a farmer also a farmer they used to grow tomatoes the company collapsed they everything full of bottles you see our building we do it by ourselves edward and the other seasonal workers live in shanty towns dilapidated huts or tents in the middle of fields there's no water no sanitary facilities electricity or heating they don't know where i'm living now they know i'm in italy they don't know where i'm living and i'll never tell them because if i've entered them they were worried no matter how you are here you have to fight to take off your family your mother your father or even sometimes your cousins all of them they have problem they'll call you and you can't say that you can't help them so you are here fighting like we that we are in trouble now our life is like now we will save our life to help our family when it's really hot edward and rasta sleep outside rather than in the makeshift plastic tents edward's been in italy for four years he lives in constant hope that he'll make enough to be able to return home but once he sent a bit of money to his family in ghana he has barely enough to survive foreign [Music] [Music] discardo cooperative grows organic tomatoes it also hires seasonal workers from africa but they earn a decent wage and are given proper contracts they're not day labourers at the mercy of the exploitative caporalato system diane scheik is from senegal and has worked on many plantations it was only when i began here that i realized what goes on at the other plantations i used to think it was just the way things worked in italy now i'm here i understand what's going on we're being exploited he wants to raise awareness of the plight of the seasonal workers we need to tell consumers so that you could buy a can of tomato puree for 40 cents alex abdul giuseppe and antonio were exploited they were forced to live in terrible conditions with no basic rights no running water no electricity so do you still processed tomato products are sold for next to nothing even though picking processing packaging and transport all have to be accounted for profit is all that matters that's why a kilo of tomatoes often fetches as little as five cents a farmer i'm getting paid just five cents per kilo how am i going to make a living it's impossible i need to buy the seedlings irrigate them i need fertilizer i need to rent a tractor these are fixed costs the only flexible costs are the wages i pay my workers we mustn't forget that the caprerolata system is a consequence it's a consequence of a market that has spiraled completely out of control pietro wants to beat the system his tomatoes are sold through a fair trade organization for 30 instead of five cents per kilo they're also processed in factories with fair conditions consumers pay more for the final product but they know they're making an ethical choice the speculation economy has resulted in food becoming a commodity that's dumped on markets so that someone else can earn money from speculation with food the tomato industry isn't the only one in which people are being exploited it's the same with watermelons and many other agricultural products often high quality products too lens bucking the global system isn't easy it involves restructuring the entire farm to consumer chains aims to prove that processed tomato products can be made ethically he wants his cooperative to serve as an example a small step to changing the entire production system [Music] tomatoes we need to decide if tomatoes are worth paying for if not we're stuck with slavery [Music] lots of people say we need to help the situation improve in ghana so that these people don't come here in the first place but global economics and politics make that impossible there's no tomato processing industry in ghana which goes to show how sick the system is how utterly crazy [Music] in europe industrial farming subsidies and wage dumping are resulting in surpluses cut price european tomatoes end up exported to international markets today italy is just a minor player in the global tomato industry china is now the world's biggest producer it exports tomato paste often diluted with cheap filler ingredients all over the world 60 million tons per year 10 times more than italy the most important metric in global exports is profitability any negative impact on the countries that import the goods is irrelevant trade policy is not development policy and africa is a lucrative destination for export nations africa is a market like any other china as a responsible major country has always been a strong advocate of free trade we look forward to expanding economic and trade cooperation with african countries ghana included we will continue to encourage the chinese trade association and business to come to africa to introduce high-end chinese brands and quality products to the african market and consumer [Applause] free trade is the principle that opens the african market to exports after independence african countries introduced customs duties in order to protect domestic farmers and emerging industries but now these restrictions are being lifted despite the fact that most african nations still struggle to compete on the international market ghana came under international pressure when it tried to increase import tariffs on tomato products to 40 percent they're now at 10 and containers full of cut price tomatoes continue to arrive in the country [Applause] economist corbin ortoo is familiar with the problem and as an academic he can speak more freely than the ghanaian government which has to take into account international investors [Music] only 30 tomato about 70 percent patch the problem with this product is that they more or less take over the domestic market for tomatoes pushing out domestic producers so you have a large number of tomato farmers who could not sell their products it's from thailand it's a terrace we have plenty of land for growing rice but again the rice farmers face the same problem as the tomato farms so we are consuming rice in large quantities we are estimated to import rice to the tin of about 500 million dollars annually tomato paste and rice are not the only products jeopardizing african markets and threatening the livelihoods of farmers in 2018 for example the eu also exported milk powder and concentrate and meat to west africa at this market in accra it's easy to see how imports are driving out domestic products many ghanaian poultry farmers are also giving up they can't compete with eu imports i mean in the 1990s ghana was producing about 90 percent of its portrait needs today we only produce five percent [Music] most of the portrait products on our market actually wastes on the european market that 95 percent of portrait product coming from elsewhere translating to job losses they translate to distraction of livelihoods it translates into poverty down here and it translates into frustration that leads young people to want to get out of this country we do not have the capacity to change these things because we have lost control over our policy in rwanda about two years ago banned the import of second-hand clothing from the u.s and u.s kicked them out of the african growth and opportunities act so that is how vicious the response can be if you try to change policy to favor your own people free trade should not destroy livelihoods it does make me sad sometimes to the point of anger because those who profit are very few the losers are many [Music] is an agricultural advisor in northern ghana near the tomato factory in poalugu that's gone out of business as a result local farmers are desperate many of them leave the region others are experimenting with alternative crops some still do grow tomatoes but just for their own families [Applause] was all done by tomatoes when the palgo tomato factory was in session they used to make a lot of money even though they they told me that they were making plenty money because the factory needed it and then the market also needed it but what can you do we have to survive so we have to continue to put in much effort as we come the child is good i'm little my two fruited very well now it came to a market new market so everything got perished in the field they will have as no where people are not coming to buy and it led to suicide they have to take their lives because if they don't take their lives the bank will come after them they don't have the money to pay many people have left to try their luck elsewhere most of them go to the cities went first to kumasi then to accra now he's planning to make the journey to europe neither of my children go to school i know they should go to school but i can't afford the fees sometimes we don't even have money to eat at night we've seen the images of dead migrants in the mediterranean sea my wife is praying for my safe voyage she knows [Music] i and to trust in him whatever happens [Music] this house is being built by my brother who lives in accra and this one by my brother in kumasi this is my house when i return i would like to tear it down and build a concrete one and also one for my mother gum [Music] people like salifu can't just apply for a visa board a plane and fly to europe their only option is to save as much money as they can and try to make their own way there anyone who can afford it enlists the help of someone known in the village as a travel agent salifu is getting some advice before he leaves foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] me stealing or robbing someone but because i wanted to give them a better future but it simply wasn't god's will it's hard to tell if someone's on their way to the market or on their way to europe some who decide to make the journey don't tell their families until they've already left many young men in the region are tired of waiting for life to improve they get to a point where leaving feels like their only option the men who hope to work on one of italy's tomato plantations have only one way to reach europe across the sahara desert and the mediterranean it's a journey that will cost some of them their lives [Music] the caritas relief organization has built a chapel near the tomato fields in apulia there are showers here and the workers can also seek advice and free medical treatment edward survived the journey from africa but he had an accident in the van on the way to the tomato fields under normal circumstances this would be covered by workers compensation and edward would be paid sick leave but on appuglia's tomato plantations edward is only paid for the crates he fills so he needs to get back on his feet as quickly as possible but dr giovanni magnifico can only help so much he can't go back to work because he'd be exposing the wound something to eat and when they go back to work they're back at square one and no one who can help them migrants contribute a substantial share of financial aid to ghana edward sends remittances home every month even though he earns so little he works as hard as he can and it's still never enough he lives not only with the weight of his family's expectations but also with the hostility of many locals many italians think we're useless useless before now we [Music] they still need workers and we are not having documents to work for them it's very bad only they know what they are doing my junior brother so he's waiting for the money to support him pay school fees and books and as you can see anything i student need yeah i carry something because i have the responsibility to take care of my family now without money they can't do nothing so far as we never get it then i have to support them and get better future for them [Music] um yes i dream to go back and do something for myself nice now i'm growing [Music] my friends i'm at work before they will come and then prepare something for them now in africa you get it from maze yeah because smith is not many you use semula yeah italian banking if i'm i'm not doing this but i just remember home because my mother used to do it the same yes [Music] and you can't go back to home you can't go back to africa like this oh we left africa we are responsibilities so how can we go africa just like this no that's the reason why we can't we can't go back [Music] how many years i spend in this country and i go back to my country with zero so may i know that one day one day one day this god will answer my prayers and i achieve my destiny bits [Music] happy and near the town of tachiman one man has made it his mission to revitalize the local tomato industry when he returned home to ghana some years ago will apology was shocked by what he saw defunct factories desperate farmers and tons of imported tomatoes after studying and working in the us he wants to invest in his own country ghanaian tomatoes could be a gold mine red gold but he's also aware of his social responsibility our mandate is to make sure that farmers have enough money in their pockets because they have not been benefiting from the farming environment for quite some time it's going to change the the landscape because once we start producing on a very very large scale in five ten years we want to see the whole landscape changing into producing quality tomatoes [Music] i hope it's not tomatoes i wish i have all my tomatoes packed in this and going out that's the vision because if we have container full of tropical tomatoes going always the hubble for shipment that will make me really feel good and knowing that i have fulfilled my assignments on earth many attempts have been made to revive the ghanaian tomato industry a factory was opened here in tachiman in 2007 but it's been closed for years perhaps it's about to get a second chance by gonna eat ghana dress gonna provide everything that you can because this is who we are our capacity is about 2 metric tons per hour we are comfortable that this company will go a long way to be sustained providing jobs as well as money in the pockets of all farmers and every stakeholder involved here once the youth have the guarantee of work then they will don't have to be migrating through the desert and to the mediterranean where they will be dying if the government wants to make sure that the industry survive here in ghana there has to be a way of protecting the industries buffers like reducing the imports from outside into the country but if the government does not provide that comfort zone then the competition will be unbearable for us unfortunately if the tomato factory were given a fair chance it might help boost the region's fortunes trade policies could support development in struggling countries rather than hinder it then benedicta's family might be able to earn a living from tomato farming her husband could remain at home [Music] and if he did decide to work in europe for a while he might be able to travel there safely and live and work in fair conditions [Music] good morning amanda every morning we talk and every evening we talk on certain days you see young men with backpacks walking in groups of ten you know that they're going to the desert well someone left a week ago but i haven't heard if he's arrived or not and as far as the danger goes we humans can die or we can live this journey is just like our life you might win or you might lose that's why they make this journey [Music] [Music] so [Music] you

Channel: undefined

Views: 2,304,332

Rating: 4.7664447 out of 5

Keywords: Documentary, Documentaries, documentaries, DW documentary, full documentary, DW, documentary 2020, documentary, Displaced, migration, refugees, unfair trade, poverty, Ghana, EU, China, tomato, tomatoes, trade, fair trade, Africa, global trade, refugee, farmer, agriculture, farmers, market, how to grow tomatoes, dw documentary, ghana, ghana news, farming, globalization, mass migration, africa, tomato production, tomato process

Id: rlPZ0Bev99s

Length: 52min 52sec (3172 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 22 2020