The Coalition of Tomato Farmers in the Upper East Region has appealed for assistance to find market for their members produce to enable them to recover their investments. The coalition said members have produced a lot of tomatoes but the Pwalugu Tomato Factory which they were expecting to buy the produce has not yet started purchases. The coalition is made up of the Tomato Producers Association of Nyariga (TOPAN), Tomatoe and Rice Farmers Network of Upper East, the Upper East Tomato Growers Association and the former National Award Winners from the region. In a petition to the Upper East Regional Minister and the Minister of Food and Agriculture, the coalition recalled that the people of the region in general and tomato farmers in particular were happy about the announcement that the Pwalugu Tomato Factory was going to be revamped to serve as a major market for their produce. "This encouraged a lot of farmers to increase the acreage of their farms and consequently went in for loans from banks and money lenders while others sold their livestock”. "We have started harvesting. But our joy is fast turning into worries because we are encountering a lot of problems." Though members of the coalition had learnt with great satisfaction of two successful test-runs by the revamped factory, it had currently shut down and was not operating, the petition noted. "Unfortunately, the market queens have stopped buying from us because of the factory and rather travel to Burkina Faso to buy while our produce is rotting on the farms." The petition, signed by Abudulai Asuah, chairman, appealed to the Regional Minister to intervene as a matter of urgency and to ensure that the factory resumes production immediately. The group alleged that a representative of the factory informed them at a meeting recently that the factory will start production within the next two weeks. However, they said by that time their produce will have perished. The coalition further appealed to the Regional Minister to use his good offices to dialogue with the market queens to buy their tomatoes. Source: The Ghanaian Times