Cocoa farmers urged to maintain quality of cocoa beans
The Vice-President in charge of Cocoa Sustainability at Barry Callibaut AG, a leading chocolate manufacturing company in the world based in Switzerland, Mr Nicho Debenham, has lauded Ghana for consistently producing quality cocoa beans on the world market.
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He said Ghana’s high quality cocoa beans distinguished it from the rest of the world. He has subsequently urged all stakeholders in the cocoa industry to endeavour to maintain standards and also increase yield.
Mr Debenham gave the commendation at a farmer’s durbar organised by Nyonkopa Licensed Cocoa Buying Company Ltd, an agency of Barry Callibaut, at New Edubiase in the Adansi South District in the Ashanti Region.
The occasion was attended by cocoa farmers and other interest groups in the cocoa industry across the country.
The farmers came from such places as Antoakrom, Asante Bekwai, Abosamso, Sokodei, Assin Breku, Assin Fosu, Akim Oda and Akyease, among others.
Premium payment
At the durbar, a maiden premium payment of GH¢288,817 for the Nyonkopa Licensed Cocoa Buying Company Ltd for the 2015/2016 cocoa year was announced.
Meanwhile, more than 4,800 cocoa farmers are to receive GH¢8 bonus on each of the 2,256 tonnes, that is, 36,132 bags of certified cocoa that was sold to the company.
Nyonkopa Cocoa was founded in the year 2012 and became operational in the 2013/2014 crop season. The company has a strong buying network and has about 700 employees, including purchasing clerks. The company buys cocoa from over 10,000 farmers spread across 34 districts in the country’s cocoa growing regions.
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Mr Debenham pledged to make the welfare and well-being of the farmers a priority in order that they could live healthily and continue to produce quality cocoa for the nation and the international market.
Aged farmers
He said Barry Callibaut AG had established measures aimed at supporting aged cocoa farmers who had been working tirelessly to sustain the cocoa industry in Ghana.
Cocoa Horizon
According to him, in order to upgrade the capacity of the cocoa farmers, it had instituted the Cocoa Horizon initiative, which involves a training programme for the farmers on ways of improving their livelihoods.
Under the horizon initiative, he said, farmers were offered training and given fertilisers, agrochemicals and other farming inputs to enable them to grow food crops, such as plantain, cassava, maize, tomatoes and others to supplement their income.
Mr Debenham said the company was also encouraging farmers to send their children to school and was supporting them in diverse ways as a means of doing away with child labour and also improving on their operation areas.
He mentioned the provision of clean drinking water in the farming communities as efforts the company was undertaking to improve the livelihood of the farmers.
The Vice-President of Cocoa Sustainability at Barry Callibaut commended the Ghana COCOBOD for its support to the buying companies in the development of the cocoa industry in Ghana.
COCOBOD
The Deputy Chief Executive of COCOBOD in charge of operations, Mr James Kutsoati, commended Nyonkopa Licensed Cocoa Buying Company for the role it was playing in the cocoa industry and urged it to continue working hard to increase the gains it was making in the industry.