Fourth International Coconut Festival launched

The fourth International Coconut Festival intended to bring stakeholders in the business together to network and discuss issues pertaining to the industry has been launched in Accra.

Scheduled for the Accra International Conference Centre from October 21-23, the yearly festival brings together players in the coconut value chain, including growers, exporters and researchers mainly from academia.

This year’s event, launched yesterday, will be on the theme: "Empowering lives through coconut: Innovation, Employment Sustainable livelihood."

Activities

A wide range of activities have been lined up to showcase Ghana's coconut as a pillar of economic transformation.

These include an essay competition for selected junior high schools across the country, with the winning group being gifted with a 10-acre coconut farm.

In a speech read on her behalf by the Director of Projects, Alexander Dadzawa, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA), Dr Afua Asabea Asare, called for a focus on research for value addition and to make Ghana's coconut very competitive in the global market.

She said Ghana's coconut industry had the potential of unlocking her economic potential and solving unemployment, especially among young graduates.

Currently, the industry employs more than 350 direct and indirect Ghanaian youth which she said was far below GEPA’s expectation.

Job avenue

The Chairman of the African Coconut Group, Davies Korboe, said the festival would leverage new technologies that could create jobs for the youth.

He expressed optimism about the future of the industry, describing Ghana's coconut as one of the best and much sought after.

"The future is bright but we have to be strategic if we want to remain competitive globally," he said.

Mr Korboe advocated more robust production methods which were sustainable and hinged on research for quality end products. He commended GEPA for offering technical support and providing seedlings to farmers.

High earning

The Western Regional Minister, Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah, under whom the region has hosted the festival twice, said coconut gave the region $400 million each year from export.

He said the region produced about 80 per cent of the country's coconut, stimulating trade and investment in that direction.

The regional minister, whose speech was read on his behalf by the Regional Budget Analyst, Daniel Ofosu Adjei, said despite the gains made in the industry, it needed to revolutionise to remain a leader in the market.