COCOBOD CEO named Tetteh Quarshie Cocoa personality

The Chief Executive of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Mr Joseph Boahen Aidoo, has been adjudged the Tetteh Quarshie Cocoa Personality 2019 at the Ghana Cocoa Awards gala night in Accra.

He was nominated alongside the Regional Director of Solidaridad West Africa, Mr Isaac Gyamfi, and a Member of Parliament for Twifo Atti Morkwa Constituency in the Central Region, Mr Abraham Dwuma Odoom.

Mr Aidoo also jointly shared the honorary "Cocoa Farmer Income Sustainability Award" with his counterpart in Cote d’Ivoire, Mr Yves Brahima Kone, the Director General of Le Conseil du Café-Cacao.

Although COCOBOD voluntarily entered the award for its CEO, Mr Aidoo could not be present to receive the award.

The Founder of the Ghana Cocoa Awards, Mr Kojo Hayford, later presented the awards and citation to Mr Aidoo at Cocoa House, headquarters of COCOBOD.

He conveyed to Mr Aidoo, the appreciation of the public who voted and the jury who scored him high marks for advancing the interests of cocoa farmers as well as pursuing numerous productivity enhancement initiatives to increase yield and improve the living conditions of cocoa farmers.

‘Sir, your efforts at promoting cocoa production through sustainable programmes to guarantee better and decent cocoa prices for the Ghanaian cocoa farmer has not gone unnoticed and the evidence is clear,”he observed.

Appreciation

Mr Aidoo expressed gratitude to VC Media Ghana for independently organising the awards, and the voting pubic and awards jury for honouring him.
"I don’t think this award is for me alone, I share it with all the people around me who have supported my administration," he said.

Other awards

A citation accompanying the honorary award read, "Your achievement of a Living Income Differential (LID) of $400 per tonne of cocoa and a floor price of $2,600 provides sufficient evidence of your passion to improving the living standards and livelihoods of cocoa farmers in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire."

Thirty-five other awards were given out to deserving recipients from the various stages of the cocoa value chain during the Friday, November 22, 2019 Ghana Cocoa Awards Gala Night.
Former President John Agyekum Kufuor received the Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to Ghana's attainment of over one million tonnes cocoa

production in 2010/2011.

A former COCOBOD CEO, Mr Anthony Fofie, also received the sustainability honorary award, with the Director of Mondelez Cocoa Life, Mrs Yaa Peprah Amekudzi, being named the Cocoa Sustainability Personality of the year 2019.

Cocoa industry awards 

The Asunafo North Cocoa Cooperative was adjudged the Most Formalised Cocoa Cooperative 2019; Lois Osei-Sekyere of Aburi Girls Senior High School picked the Cocoa Sustainability Literacy Essay Contest Award; AMP Logistics, Logistics Company 2019; Kiteko Ghana Limited, Haulage Company 2019; and the Agricultural Development Bank, Cocoa Financing Institution 2019.

Other winners include Yara Ghana, RMG Ghana and Crop Doctor Ltd, Niche Cocoa and Mi-Cocoa (Ohene Cocoa).

Mondelez International's Cocoa Life programme was adjudged the Ghana Cocoa Awards Sustainability Initiative 2019 with Solidaridad West Africa emerging the Cocoa NGO 2019.

Sponsors for Ghana Cocoa Awards 2019 were ECOM Ghana, Agricultural Development, Solidaridad West Africa, Fairtrade Africa, AMP Logistics, RMG Ghana and the Hershey Company.