The Ghana Cocoa Board has secured 1.13 billion dollars from a consortium of international banks and financial institutions to purchase cocoa beans in the 2022/2023 cocoa season.
Part of the money will also be used for research to help maintain the quality of the beans.
The agreement was signed yesterday to pave the way for the transfer of the funds from next week.
The Head of Communications at the Cocoa Board, Fifi Boafo says talks are ongoing to avoid a ban on Ghana’s cocoa in the European Union and Switzerland Market.
In an interview, he stressed the need to stop the degradation of the forest and deal with illegal mining as soon as possible.
He says cocoa is the mainstay of the economy and everything will be done to fight negative practices that will affect the marketing of the product abroad.
“Activities that are affecting the forest cover of the country is also under scrutiny.
It’s a conversation that is ongoing, we have engaged European Union for a very long time and our expectation is that it will yield some result.
There are two issues that are being considered at the moment, i.e. country benchmark, and undue diligence by EU,” Fiifi said.
He says, there’s no time left as illegal mining poses danger to the cocoa industry, and that it is for the responsibility of the industry to curtail the menace.
