|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Let’s deepen the business aspect of cocoa and chocolate – COCOBOD
Dr Emmanuel Opoku, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Operations, COCOBOD has urged stakeholders in cocoa and chocolate to further deepen the business aspect of cocoa by making the chocolate week celebration a year long affair.
He said, “we must go beyond the Chocolate Week celebration, so that cocoa or chocolate does not become the point of focus just during the week of celebration, but the business part of it should travel all year, while bringing all the partners on board with a business mindset.”
“The celebration would still be observed with the eating and giving out of chocolate as gifts. But the business of chocolate would be how we can use cocoa beans to do more than chocolate.”
Speaking at the ‘Chocolatarium’ a forum to climax this year’s Chocolate Week celebration, Dr Opoku said, “Cocoa is not all about chocolate, so at our level as business people let us begin to think of how to develop our cocoa and chocolate to the level where we may not have to export raw cocoa beans to other places in the world. In that case then raw cocoa bean would come at a higher premium than we have today.”
The forum on the theme: “The business of chocolate” was organised by the Ghana Tourism Authority, COCOBOD and the Cocoa Processing Company.
Dr Opoku said, “starting from this year we can go further deep than we are doing so that we can develop the cocoa and chocolate industry for the benefit of all.”
He said as a country with a rich history in cocoa production and maturing tourism sector, Ghana had the prospective advantage to position itself as a leading destination that offers a realistic cocoa experience.
“With the focus on responsible and ethical cocoa production, Ghana can showcase its commitment to sustainable cocoa industry and attract tourists who seek experience that can make an impact.”
Dr Opoku assured of COCBOD’s commitment to support the development of the industry, adding that he was hopeful that the outcome of the summit would not only improve the tourism landscape but serve as a model for other sectors in the economic value chain.
Mr Akwesi Agyeman, Chief Executive Officer, Ghana Tourism Authority, said Ghana’s cocoa held a special place in the global chocolate industry, and all chocolate manufacturers looked forward to getting a bit of Ghanaian cocoa to add to the preparation of their chocolate so that the tase would come out good.
He said over the last few years, through the efforts of GTA, COCOBOD, tourism industry practitioners and various producers, cocoa consumption per capital has gone up to 1kg, from 0.4. and that is a lot of progress.
“We know that our target is not one percent, because we are looking at the global target which is around six and so we have a long way to go. But we have taken the step and believe that we won’t just go round to share chocolate, talk about cocoa consumption, without really understanding what business underpins the industry.”
Mr Agyeman said the forum was not just to talk about the chocolate week, but to talk about the entire value chain, including the farmers, cocoa buying companies, and all those who helped in one way or the other from the farm to the final consumer.
He said, in addition to the economic impact of cocoa, it also presented an opportunity for sustainable and ethical business practices, hence farmers must put in the best practices, for all to derive the desired benefits from cocoa.
“As we climax the celebration, we appeal to industry players to continue to provide cocoa and chocolate-based products to our visitors and tourists. Let’s add more cocoa based products to our menu for all to benefit from it. Once we see that growth in would benefit everyone in the value chain.”
Mr Edward Ashong-Lartey of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre said even though Ghana was the world’s second largest producer efforts were being made to transform Ghana’s relationship in cocoa, moving beyond simply exporting beans to embracing value addition.
He said in recent years there had been a surge in local processing and the demand for chocolate was on the increase and with the awareness being created daily in terms of its nutritional and health benefits, “we are confident that we will see a lot more people consuming it soon.”
“To strategically expand the cocoa manufacturing industry in Ghana, the relevance of investment cannot be undermined. Fortunately, the cocoa processing and manufacturing industry is gaining ground on daily basis, as a lot more local small-scale producers have emerged.
He said the cocoa industry played a significant role in economic development, not to talk about the foreign exchange earnings derived from it, hence the GIPC in collaboration with COCOBOD was working to engage government to come out with a paper to deal with some of the issues raised by the small-scale producers.
Mr Ashong Lartey was hopeful that through the collaborative effort of stakeholders they would put the local cocoa industry on a sound footing so that in the very near future they would become the power house in the cocoa industry.
Source: GNA
