Issues surrounding the importation of cocoa beans to Ghana

Published 2024년 3월 6일

Tridge summary

A leaked letter revealing the Ghana Cocoa Board's permission for Afrotropic Cocoa Processing Company Limited to import cocoa beans has raised concerns among stakeholders. Despite Ghana being the world's second leading cocoa producer and exporter, local processors often struggle to meet production targets due to high costs and sometimes import more affordable beans to blend with premium Ghanaian beans. The Board has clarified that Ghana has never imported cocoa as a country. However, it has permitted COCOBOD to source 2500 tons of cocoa beans from Côte d’Ivoire and 1000 tons from Nigeria for over twenty years, allowing local processors to import for industrial use. Critics argue that the focus should be on increasing Ghana's own cocoa production.

Disclaimer:The above summary was generated by Tridge's proprietary AI model for informational purposes.

Original content

A recently leaked official letter from the Ghana Cocoa Board, granting a request from the Afrotropic Cocoa Processing Company Limited to import cocoa beans into the country for processing, has led to some anxiety among stakeholders in the cocoa sector. The said letter has raised concerns about whether or not Ghana, the cradle of premium quality cocoa imports cocoa beans for whatever reasons. The major question on the lips of citizenry, mostly expressed through social media and other online platform is, "Does Ghana import cocoa beans? If so, since when did this start? This article puts in perspective, opinionated position in an attempt to answer the question. In January 2024, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) reported that cocoa is currently the third most important export commodity of Ghana, coming after gold and oil and accounting for 13% of the country’s total export receipts. It is noteworthy that of these major export commodities, cocoa is the only commodity for which Ghana has 100 ...

Source: Modernghana