Protect Intellectual Property Rights

By Dr. Courage Besah-Adanu, Intellectual Property Expert

Revenue generation and sources of development funding are the most topical issues dominating public discourses today in Ghana. Various development stakeholders are therefore required to assist Policy Maker’s in search of innovative solutions to the nation’s economic and financial challenges. It is against this background that those 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 differentiates 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 improves the quality of production using various branding tools, in the form of origin labelling and Collective Trademarks. Over 3,400 GI products have been registered within the EU, 320 in India and about 2,533 in China. Africa largely has potential products with few registered as GI products in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Morocco, Mozambique and Guinea.

A worldwide study in 2018 on economic impact of GIs, showed that on average, prices doubled and in some cases tripled, for products compared with similar products that are not GI registered. For example, French GI cheeses are sold at an average of two Euro per kilo more than French non-GI cheeses. French Poulet de Bresse (a type of chicken) has a market price four times higher than regular French chicken. Producers of Italian Tuscano olive oil have managed to increase prices for their olive oil by 20% since it was registered as a GI in 1998. In other instances, the case of a traditionally not-export-oriented country like Spain is striking: in 1991 (5 years after accession to the EU), exports of GI products amounted to 443 million Euro and in 1999 more than One billion Euro.

The Unique Case of Pona Yam as a Potential GI Product for Ghana is worth exploring. The yam crop (Dioscorea spp.) 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-point- three million tonnes in 1971 to 74.8 million tonnes in 2020. Ghana produces about eight million 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 tonnes compared with previous years. Yams from Ghana are mainly exported to the United Kingdom, South Africa, Italy and the United States.

Although Nigeria produces high volumes of yam (over 70% of global production), Ghana exports more yam in the sub-region. There is continuous demand for fresh yam produce from West Africa in Europe, North America and in some parts of Asia. Global exports of Yam were valued at 177 Million dollars. As the lead exporter of Yam, Ghana has a world share of 22.1% with the export value to the global markets as at 2019 standing at US$39.1M. The annual value of Agri-food products protected as GIs within the European Union stands at 27.34 billion Euros. Ghana can earn more than twice the current export value in foreign exchange from the export of yam. The current export value of yam is about 39.1M dollars. The country could earn twice this current value for the same export volumes at the same price if the Yams were protected with Geographical Indications. Having an origin label would augment prices on the global market at over $78M.

It is highly projected that this figure would increase as the countries of export may drastically increase through the current arrangement within the international corridors of trade between Ghana and her partners within the intellectual property structures for origin labelling. The Industrial Property Office of the Registrar-General’s Department has the overall mandate, to identify, develop, register and protect origin labelled products for Ghana. With the current existing legal environment, Ghana must as a matter of urgency, support the relevant agencies of state to harness this great opportunity to benefit the nation. To improve her food systems while creating lots of decent jobs and employment for the teeming youth. Ghana could generate over $78M annually from Yam export only using IPR Protection.

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