DOES COCOA PRODUCTION ACHIEVE ITS POTENTIAL?

By Oliver Griffin

For Ghana, cocoa is an essential part of the economy. Today, we at Central Press decided to investigate whether this valuable resource was being properly managed, or if in fact its vast potential was being left to rot in the cocoa fields.

Ghana is one of Africa’s biggest exporters of cocoa and cocoa related products, second only to the Ivory Coast. As a producer, it supplies a multitude of different countries in the west, including America and the U.K., and also the east, for example, Japan. However, the question still remains as to whether Ghana is making the most of this valuable and renewable resource in its aim to make ‘a better Ghana’ a reality.   

It is apparent that throughout the production timeline of cocoa in Ghana, there is an unfortunate lack of transparency as to who pays who and how much they are paying them. Talking to both a cocoa farmer and cocoa distributor today, revealed a striking difference in opinion as to how much earning potential a cocoa farmer actually had. The cocoa farmer, Mrs Elizabeth Dankase stated that in a year, her two acres of land can produce eight bags and that she is paid only 100 GHC per bag (and so a total of 800 GHC a year). However, when we spoke to Mr Ebenezer Apiah, a director from the local distribution depot, he instead told us that the farmers were paid 200 GHC per bag and that in a year they could produce up to sixteen bags of cocoa – this would mean that farmers like Mrs Dankse earn up to 4 times more than she said. However, he also declined to tell us precisely how much the government paid him when they exported his cocoa across the globe. This lack of easily accessible information is what prevents small farmers from making the most of their crop, leading to continued poverty throughout Ghana’s many cocoa growing communities.   

What is equally worrying is the amount of cocoa that is wasted in Ghana each year. Despite Mr. Appiah stating that from 2009-2011 the number of bags of cocoa sold increased by 1084, a source from the Ghana:Culture Smart! book observes that ‘Kwame Nkrumah’s fifty-year-old vision of a self-reliant manufacturing country for little need of foreign imports has not yet been realised. Incredibly, a country that produces cocoa and pineapples is letting them rot in the fields while importing Malaysian chocolate and Singaporean pineapple juice.’ This indicates that much more has to be done to properly manage Ghana's national cocoa crop. With proper management, Ghana could instead use its own cocoa to produce domestic chocolate, that would increase the money that the rural communities receive, as well as avoiding expensive shipping costs and import tax. In time, hopefully the Ghanaian government will realise it is squandering a golden opportunity, before it becomes all to involved in its hunt for oil.