The Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has encouraged the general public not to relent in processing and consumption of more locally cocoa in the country to boost the sector.
He said the country has made some progress in the cocoa industry but must step up the efforts to increase processing to boost domestic production of cocoa.
He made the statement on Tuesday, 7 February 2023, in Accra when delivering a keynote address at the launch of this year’s National Chocolate Week Celebrations. The core purpose of the Chocolate Week Celebration is to promote local consumption of chocolate and other cocoa-based products among others.
“One of the ways to do this is to guarantee the light crop for the local producers so that they do not have to buy the main crop for domestic processing. As we know, the main crop is comparatively more expensive. If we are serious about boosting local production, then we must move quickly to ensure that local processors are able to fully meet their bean needs from the light crop.
We must secondly use policy instruments to ensure that financing support is provided for domestic processors. The financial sector should be incentivized to provide financing for the domestic processors using the cocoa beans as security and escrowing into an account of the off-takers. The challenge of financing domestic processors will be lightened via this channel,” he noted.
According to him although the incentives offered by the Ghana Free Zones Authority are endearing enough to attract more domestic processors, they aren’t well known therefore the incentives should be better highlighted by the freezones Authority and COCOBOD to attract more processors to set up in the freezones area and then process.
Highlighting on the matter of stimulating domestic consumption of cocoa products, the Ofoase Ayirebi Member of Parliament underscores the need of promoting the value chain of chocolate in the region.
“We need to promote more chocolatiers to join the value chain. The more domestic chocolatiers and nuanced products there are on the local market, the better our chances of deepening the local taste and demand. The red carpet of incentives as we would give a foreign direct investor should be rolled out for local chocolatiers as well.
“Secondly, the 35% tax on butter and liquor (raw materials for chocolatiers) should be re-considered. This will make it less expensive to finance operations. It will also make the final products more affordable on the market”.
“And finally, we should support initiatives across Africa to stimulate consumption among school children. Sectors of our economy making super profits can be encouraged to finance such initiatives which will serve as an investment for the growth of a future market in Africa for our cocoa.”
He was hopeful that some of these initiatives when implemented will be instrumental in giving true impetus to the rhetoric of boosting the cocoa industry in Ghana.
