Give cocoa farmers value for produce - Akufo- Addo

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has asked the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) to find ways to give cocoa farmers value for their produce.

The ordinary cocoa farmer, he said, “is not getting the requisite value for his sweat and toil.”

Making a case for Ghanaian and Ivoirian cocoa farmers at a working lunch with members of the WCF in New York yesterday, the President said cocoa farmers in the two countries produced about 60 per cent of cocoa beans for the world market but earned only five or six per cent of the value of cocoa beans.

The WCF, representing 80 per cent of the global corporate market, is a trade group with 100 member companies, with giant manufacturers such as Nestlé and Mars.

Statistics

Giving statistics, President Akufo-Addo said in 2015, cocoa farmers in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire earned about $5.7 billion dollars “yet the chocolate market was worth $100 billion around that same time”.

“It is time to look at an intelligent and sustainable means of giving them value for their input,” he said.

The President, therefore, called on the WCF to do more to help those cocoa farmers get value for their produce.

He said cocoa was the life-blood of Ghana and, therefore, there was the need to protect the interest of the farmers who produced the cocoa.

In his opening remarks, the President of the WCF, Mr Robert Scobey, said the meeting would help to look at how the foundation could invest more in the cocoa industry in Ghana.

He stated that the foundation was ready to support Ghana to produce up to about one million metric tons of cocoa beans annually.

He also said the foundation supported Ghana’s goal of venturing into the processing of the cocoa beans to add value to them before export.

Foundation

Mr Scobey said the meeting was a follow-up to an earlier one he held with the then presidential candidate Nana Akufo-Addo who was campaigning to be President and pledged the readiness of the foundation to collaborate with Ghana to find lasting partnerships to boost the cocoa industry.

Among the delegation from Ghana were Mrs Martha Phobee at Ghana’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre, Mr Yofi Grant, and the Chief Executive of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Mr Joseph Boahen Aidoo.

Writers email:Rebecca.quaicoe-duho@graphic.com.gh