Ghanese industry players who are working in the Industrial Property Right Protection space wish to uncover some low hanging revenue fruits that the nation could innovatively harvest. Geographical Indications (GIs) are signs used on products from a particular geographical origin, with specific qualities or a reputation that are essentially attributed to the place of origin.
This form of Intellectual Property, protects the uniqueness, reputation and other characteristics that easily differentiate a product from other similar ones on the market. GIs largely protect food and non-food products, especially of rural origin. GIs increase revenues for local producers and satisfy the needs of conscious and demanding customers.
The system facilitates the originality of producers and improve the quality of production using various branding tools in the form of origin labelling and Collective Trademarks.
The yam crop is an important crop generating income for over 60 million people. Nigeria and Ghana are the leading producers in the world. Global yam production increased from 15.3million tons in 1971 to 74.8 million tons in 2020. Ghana produces about 8million tons of yam annually. The country's yam production has increased significantly over the period. In 2018 and 2019, production was about 7,858,209 and 8,288,198 metric tons, respectively, compared with previous years.
Source: ghanaweb.com
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