The Chief Executive (CE) of Ghana Cocoa Board, Joseph Boahen Aidoo has underplayed the People’s Republic of China’s venture into cocoa production, saying they cannot be a threat to Ghana.
According to him, the island on which China is producing cocoa is tiny and has unfavourable weather conditions that would work against them to become a major threat to traditional cocoa producing countries like Ghana. He stated that cocoa thrives in tropical areas with weather conditions above 18 Degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, the Chinese Island in question has temperatures falling below 14 Degrees Celsius.
Mr Aidoo was confident that: “We don’t have to be worried about that tiny island Hainan –because our geographical conditions give us that comparative advantage. Cocoa cannot thrive in areas where temperatures fall below 18 Degrees Celsius.
“In Ghana, our temperatures are always above 21 Degrees Celsius, but that island’s temperature can go as low as 14 Degrees Celsius. With that temperature in winter all the leaves/flowers will drop, you don’t see that in Ghana.”
However the CEO of the regulator of cocoa in the country said “We don’t have to be worried
about that tiny island Hainan –because our geographical conditions give us that comparative
advantage. Cocoa cannot thrive in areas where temperatures fall below 18 degrees Celsius.
However the CEO of the regulator of cocoa in the country said “We don’t have to be worried
about that tiny island Hainan –because our geographical conditions give us that comparative
advantage. Cocoa cannot thrive in areas where temperatures fall below 18 degrees Celsius.the CE of the regulator of cocoa in the country said “We don’t have to be worried about that tiny island Hainan –because our geographical conditions give us that comparative advantage. Cocoa cannot thrive in areas where temperatures fall below 18 degrees Celsius.
This will only mean one thing, they cannot have all year round production because during unfavourable conditions, the cocoa tree will lose its flowers and leaves, “we don’t see that in Ghana, so don’t worry.”
Mr Aidoo was speaking at the Ghana Investment Promotion (GIPC) “Cocoa value chain investment meeting 2021”, held in Accra yesterday.
Productivity enhancement programmes were some of his immediate initiatives he took in 2017 to recalibrate the cocoa industry that has severely taken a nosedive.
He added that some of the local companies processing cocoa had to close down because of unavailability of cocoa beans and so one of the first things that Ghana has to do right was to get the beans, saying “right now the beans supply is good.”
Addressing the meeting, he said COCOBOD’s focus now is to promote local processing and consumption, since “if we process and we are not consuming that is also another problem.”
He noted that per capital consumption of chocolate and other cocoa products in a year is 0.6, which is so low in the country.
The Chief Executive Officer of GIPC, Yofi Grant, on his part raised concerns about how players in the cocoa industry can be transformed into multi-billionaires.
He said: “Cocoa has been the main stay of the Ghanaian economy but we still labour to find one cocoa billionaire out of a crop that has actually developed the country. For me, that re-echoes a certain missing link that we have not monetised it in a very indigenous and domestic way as we should.”
According to him, one way the country can harness its cocoa industry was to take advantage of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to transform it into a modern economy.
He said cocoa crop approximately generates US$2 billion a year in foreign exchange and employs closely 800,000 cocoa farmers directly.
Mr Yofi Grant indicated that between 2018 and 2019, Ghana’s cocoa production was approximately 812,000 tonnes, accounting for about 10% of export earnings.
The South African High Commissioner to Ghana, Ms. Grace Janet Mason stated that cocoa has “absolute advantage for Ghana and the region,” which needs to be leveraged on, through AfCFTA.
AfCFTA is at the apex of Africa’s agenda and with Ghana being the epicentre of trade in West Africa, the country is strategically poised for penetration in other markets.”
Dr Emmanuel Opoku, the Deputy CE of COCOBOD in-charge of Operations said during panel discussion that the company’s business friendly policies and interventions have raised local cocoa processing from 23% to over 40% and with AfCFTA.
“We project a rise in demand and a much bigger opportunity for current and new investors in the processing and value addition space,” he added.
Vice President of Cocoa Value Addition Artisans Association of Ghana, Dela Kuekey, urged COCOBOD to speed up its regulations to allow artisanal cocoa processors to procure beans in locations close to their operations.
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