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Ghana Cocoa Board Executive Director Joseph Boahen Aidoo has called for mass consumption of cocoa products in the country to grow the industry and increase its profits.
In an interview with Joy Business at the second edition of the Ghana Cocoa Awards Gala and Networking Night, Mr. Boahen Aidoo said that the huge intake of cocoa-related products can boost the country’s revenue.
“We have a young population, so we must promote the consumption of cocoa products, particularly chocolate to achieve a boom.”
“If we can achieve a boom for Africa, I believe that just by using cocoa as a vehicle, Africa will become one of the richest continents in the world,” he said.
According to him, if the country is capable of producing around 800,000 metric tons per year, it will be earning almost 320 million dollars with a deferential decent income ”.
He added that the deferential vital income, which is the additional sum paid per ton of cocoa, ensuring the practical increase in the price paid to farmers, has come to stay.
The head of the Cocoa Life program in Ghana, Yaa Peprah Amekudzi, who received the award for the sustainability personality of the year 2020, seconded the call. “The cocoa producers are working hard, but if they work hard, harvest and don’t have the transporters, the processors and even the consumers, then we are in big trouble,” he said.
He noted that the awards “raise awareness and encourage all of us in the value chain to do our best.”
Yaa Peprah Amekudzi also called on cocoa farmers to pay attention to protecting agricultural trees by ensuring adequate water on farms.
“We should plant more trees, we should look at the irrigation facilities or the irrigation system, especially the drip system, and make sure we have enough water on our farms. And again, we have shed our cocoa trees, if we do, then we are talking about sustainability, “he added.
The event that created a platform for networking among actors within the sector to generate progressive synergies for the collective good of the industry that has become the backbone of the Ghanaian economy for more than a century.
