National Chocolate Day marked with exhibition

This year’s National Chocolate Day was marked in Accra yesterday with an exhibition to promote the consumption of chocolate and other cocoa products locally.

Various cocoa products, such as chocolate and cookies, were put on display by the Ghana Cocoa Board, the Cocoa Processing Company, the Produce Buying Company and the Ghana Tourism Authority.

The exhibits were patronised by a cross-section of the public.

The ceremony was interspersed with performances by cultural troupes.

Ms Dzifa Abla Gomashie, the Deputy Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, who opened the exhibition, announced that a national committee on cocoa consumption had been inaugurated to ensure an increase in cocoa consumption in the country.

She, therefore, urged COCOBOD and its agencies to widely distribute made-in-Ghana cocoa products in the country.

That exposure,  Ms Gomashie said, would also help promote the consumption of chocolate and other cocoa products by visitors to the country.

Economic Benefit

The Deputy Director of Research of COCOBOD, Mr Emmanuel Opoku, said cocoa had contributed to the growth of the economy as a major foreign exchange earner for the country and source of employment.

He explained that the revenue derived from the production of cocoa had been used to construct roads, establish schools, build hospitals, among other facilities, to enhance living standards.

Highlighting the health benefits of cocoa, a representative of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital Anatomy Department, Mr Godwin Sorkpor, said cocoa, among other things, helped to strengthen the functioning of the mind, the heart, the kidney and the skin.

He said cocoa also helped to facilitate digestion, particularly when one was suffering from constipation.