GTA observes Chocolate Day

The Ghana Tour­ism Authority (GTA) on Friday celebrated Choco­late Day in Accra with a call on Gha­naians to work together in order to help promote cocoa-related products in the country.

The celebration, which was on the theme: ‘Eat Chocolate. Stay Healthy, Grow Ghana’ and a sub-theme: ‘Chocolate For All: Taste, Share, and Care,’ was marked with activities such as church visitations, time with school children, and visit to the National Chief Imam’s residence.

Others were street floats, a cocoa quiz competition, melting mo­ments, regional participation, and a chocolate feast.

It was aimed to increase the use of Ghanaian chocolate and other cocoa products and help promote domestic tourism, while providing a healthy orientation and recogni­tion of this year’s Valentine’s Day.

Speaking at the event, the Depu­ty Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GTA, Mr Ben Anane Nsia, said the celebration of the Chocolate Day, which began 20 years ago, had been successful within the tourism industry.

According to him, the GTA had over the years strived to focus on capitalising on the high-grade chocolate and cocoa to encourage their consumption among Ghana­ians and also highlight their health benefits.

“This journey began 20 years ago and has been a collaboration between GTA and our sister agencies. It has been very success­ful in the tourism fraternity within Ghana’s event calendar because we focus on two things: high-grade chocolate and high-grade cocoa, to encourage their consumption and benefits,” Mr Nsia stated.

Mr Michael Ekow Amoah, the Deputy Director of Research at COCOBOD, who delivered a speech on behalf of the CEO of COCOBOD, Dr Randy Abbey, said that the new CEO was com­mitted to reform the cocoa sector to ensure that the research agenda in the cocoa sector was revived.

He asserted that the agenda was focused on putting farmers at the centre of all activities and discus­sions in the cocoa sector, adding through strategic partnerships, COCOBOD would improve the productivity of cocoa farms.

Furthermore, Mr Amoah stated that Ghana had become one of the leading producers of cocoa in the world, but the country had not been able to reap its full benefits due to the inability to improve upon its consumption in the country.

The National Chocolate Day Celebration was instituted in 2007 by the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, and Culture to coincide with Valentine’s Day, which falls on February 14 every year.

In 2021, COCOBOD and GTA initiated the idea to extend the day’s celebration, which was successfully organised. As a result, National Chocolate Day was changed to National Chocolate Week.

 BY EUGENE

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