ABSTRACT
The export of pineapples from Ghana has been one of the success stories for a country struggling to find alternative sources of foreign capital. Initially grown by smallholders in the Akwapim Range, production has been increasingly dominated by large-scale pineapple farms located to the west. This shift has coincided with the development of a new type of pineapple (MD2) which has come to dominate the global pineapple market. Smallholders have experienced the bottom falling out of the market for the Smooth Cayenne variety that they grow, but have been unable to switch to the new variety as MD2 pineapples require capital-intensive investment. Some farmers have suffered heavy financial loss as they have been unable to sell the pineapples they have grown, whilst others have lost the land that they have been cultivating for generations to large commercial farms. A few of the most successful farmers, who all started off as smallholders, have been able to expand their pineapple production and maintain sales to pineapple-processing companies located nearby.
