Ghana to process 40% of cocoa locally

Ghana is targeting to process 40% of its annual cocoa production locally, in the medium term, to help boost the country’s economy which has been described as a frontier emerging market. To this effect, the government, in collaboration with the COCOBOD has embarked on a number of policies in a bid to attract investors to aid in pursuing this dream.
Among the policies include; granting of the requisite permission for importing essential plant, machinery, equipment and accessories required for the enterprise and exemption from payment of customs import duties on plant, machinery, equipment and accessories imported specifically and exclusively for the processing of cocoa in the country.
President John Agyekum Kufuour made this known in Accra when he officially commissioned the refurbished COCOBOD building. He said it was the priority of his government to ensure that cocoa production in the country is improved to 1,000,000 metric tonnes as championed by the COCOBOD to realize this dream by the year 2010.
With regards to this, President Kufour said his government was leaving no stone unturned to embark on Cocoa Sector reforms, geared towards increasing efficiency in the cocoa industry, and in particular COCOBOD and its subsidiaries, increasing and sustaining production, enhancing the incomes of farmers and maintaining the quality of the country’s cocoa beans. Cocoa production over the past years has seen significant increases from 389,772 metric tonnes in 2000/01 to a record level of 740,458 metric tonnes in 2005/06.
According to the President, his government, in 2001, embarked on a Cocoa Disease and Pest Control programme dubbed- “Mass Spraying”, to revive the cocoa industry by mass spraying of cocoa farms in the country to ensure high yields, and also highly improved cocoa beans, which to him has paid off by enabling government to pay double bonuses to farmers this year.
“Government’s policy to pay an increasing share of the F.O.B price to the farmer and ensure that cocoa farmers receive reasonable incomes to cover their cost of production and make some profits, has been consistently pursued and successfully carried out. It is worthy to note that for the first time COCOBOD has paid farmers bonuses twice this year, for the 2006/07 crop year amounting to GH¢32,000,000.00", he noted.
President Kufuor averred that his government in its bid to replenish soil fertility and to improve on the productivity of the cocoa tree, initiated the Cocoa Hi-Tech programme through the COCOBOD in 2003, which involved the application of fertilizers, improved planting materials and the application of insecticides and fungicides, on cocoa farms to help increase the productivity of most cocoa farms in the country.