Organic Trade & Investments enters into a partnership agreement with Alliance Francaise d'Accra to launch a monthly organic market fair every last Saturday of the month from 9 am to 2 pm to encourage people to eat non-GMO food.
As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility, Organic Trade & Investments organised the Saturday Organic Market with the sole aim to promote small local farmers and producers of organic produces and products.
The market fair, which aims at targeting lovers of organic products, is an opportunity for vendors to learn to cooperate and build a good rapport with each other.
"We believe in coopetition as one of the greatest "tools" to establish and build a sustainable interrelationship among all the vendors," Ms. Esther Asante, Co-Organizer and Managing Director of Organic Trade & Investments said.
During the first edition, two of the vendors; EnoYaa Farms and Atarrah Ghana Limited; blended their products to create a very tasty smoothie.
This beautiful collaboration underlines Esther's statement on Coopetition as "the best partnership strategy to add a value to and grow your business."
The first edition, which was held on February 24, 2018 at Alliance Francaise, attracted quite a number of expats and a few local buyers amid the school vacation period. Six exhibitors, including three vegetables and fruits vendors, participated in the first edition.
"OTI will be running this market for a period of three months, every last Saturday of the month. We will monitor how things go and after three months, if we - meaning our vendors, OTI, and our partners - are satisfied with the outcome of this fair, we will then extend the contract," Ms. Angela Akua Asante, Co-Organizer and Executive Business Support Manager of Organic Trade & Investments explained.
As the only organizer of the event, OTI had to provide the logistics including; the canopies, tables, chairs, as well as organize the vendors. These vendors get to keep 100% of their proceeds and also get new markets and exposure.
The MD of the Company shares her experience in setting up the market fair: "It was a bit of a challenge because we had to go through a long list of vendors who were interested in participating in the fair. But we had to retain only those we could ascertain as producers and vendors or organic products or produces. From the time our partners contacted us in December last year to the first time we launched the market, a lot of work had to be done. We had less than two months to get the fair up and running."
To make this market a success, Organic Trade & Investments contacted EcoCert Ghana. "They played a great role in helping us select the best farmers for this fair," Esther recalls.
The particularity of OTI's market is the use of no plastic bags, making its market one of the most Eco-friendly fair held in Ghana. Buyers carried their purchased items in brown paper bags made available to them by the organizers.
The market fair has run successfully since February of this year and its core members have been very faithful in being present. But in a communiqué sent on Monday, April 23, 2018 to exhibitors of the fair, OTI's Executive Business Support Manager thanks the vendors for their interest in participating in the organic market and stated that "Our 3-month partnership with Alliance Francaise ended on April 21st. We will inform all interested participants about the way forward for future editions of OTI's Organic Market."
The Company has however announced plans to extend the contract till the end of the year but will take holidays into consideration to ensure that a larger audience will be able to attend the fair. Esther explains: "Our market targets the expat community, mostly. School holidays tend to slow down sells and that doesn't help our vendors."
Following the communique, some buyers, who have made OTI Organic Saturday Market a part of their agenda have called for the continuation of this market fair, saying "It's a great place for one to buy fresh organic produces."
It seems though that for the time being, given the summer holidays, the market will be put on hold. The market fair should restart sometime in September.
"We believe and will continue to believe in promoting small local vendors of organic products," Angela reassures OTI vendors and customers.
Get more pictures of our organic market on OTI Facebook page.
