Cocoa Processing Company Board Inaugurated

By Agnes Opoku

A nine-member governing board of the Cocoa Processing Company Limited (CMC) was yesterday sworn into office in Accra with a call on them to turn the fortunes of cocoa around, by making it vibrant across the globe.

Swearing them into office, the Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto said: "The destiny of cocoa is in your hands, work hard and expose our cocoa and it products to attractive investors, so that we can increase our output and earn more."

The member include Mr Kwaku Owusu Baah (Chairman), Nana Agyenim Boateng, Mr Ben Abdullah Banda and Mrs Philomena Okyere.

The rest of the members are Mr Emmanuel Ray Ankrah, Mr Joe Forson, Prof. Douglas Boateng, Mr Abdul Samed-Adams and a representative from the Ministry of Finance whose name has not been mentioned.

He charged them to work hard as a team and add value to cocoa and its products to make it profitable.

Mr Kwaku Owusu Baah on behalf of the board commended the government for the confidence reposed in them to transform the CMC into a workable and profitable state-owned enterprise, and pledged to demonstrate professionalism through the company's collective experience.

He said there was the need for drastic policy measures to address issues of promoting domestic consumption of cocoa in the country.

According to Mr Baah, this would help improve the country's production in the cocoa value chain.

Mr Baah indicated that exports of raw cocoa beans over the years had not been helpful to the country of which statistics had proven.

He said the government's call to add value to the country's cocoa was significant since it would help the country earn more, hence the CPC could play a lead role to effect the change.

He said Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire produced 65 per cent of world cocoa, but Ghana earns as low as 3 billion dollars annually, while the chocolate industry, a product of cocoa, valued over 100 billion dollars annually.

In view of this, the difference was as a result of adding value to cocoa, saying, "In the western part of Europe, the chocolate industry is worth more than 35 million dollars although the continent produces no cocoa."

Read Full Story