The Council Chairman of the Cocoa Abrabopa Farmers Association, Pomasi Ismaila, emphasized that importing cocoa from another country should not happen.
Instead, the country should address its problems by providing what farmers need to produce cocoa on a larger scale.
This comes after the circulation of a letter indicating that Ghana is importing cocoa beans from Nigeria, Ecuador, Cote d’Ivoire, and Togo.
” I have seen a letter circulating saying that we are importing cocoa from neighbouring Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, for the local processing companies. I think that importing cocoa is not something I will say; we are likely to import from these countries for local projects, and they have these arrangements already in the chain.
I don’t think it’s the best thing to do; you don’t export all your beans and then import the same from other countries. It shouldn’t happen. I don’t know what arrangements were put in place to source cocoa from Nigeria and Ivory Coast,” Ismaila said.
” This, to some extent, is a global challenge. Ivory Coast reported close to 40 percent in their projection compared to last year.
We, as a country, need to do so many things to ensure that we are always on the safer side,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Ghana Cocobod has asked the public to disregard false claims deduced from a leaked letter that suggests that Ghana is importing cocoa beans due to a shortage.
A letter signed by the Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD, Joseph Boahene Aidoo, approved the AFROTROPHIC cocoa processing company’s limited import of 2,500 tonnes of cocoa beans from Cote d’Ivoire and 1,000 tonnes from Nigeria.
But COCOBOD said the leaked letter is a misrepresentation of the facts.
