Cocoa Processing Company to Increase Capacity in Five Years

The Cocoa Processing Company (CPC) at Tema has drawn up a new development programme to increase processing of cocoa beans from 25,000 to 50,000 tonnes in the next five years.

Chocolate production, which makes up only five per cent of the company's products, would be increased from 1,950 to 6,350 tonnes when the new plan takes effect next year.

Mr. Paul Awua, Managing Director said on Monday during a tour of the factory by Captain Nkrabeah Effah-Darteh (RTD), Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development that these projected increases are to bring up sales volume from 190 billion to 603 billion cedis. It will also increase profitability from 18 billion to 116 billion cedis per annum.

Mr Awua said, the programme involved investing in new machinery but this had been delayed because of plans in the past to divest the company.

He said the CPC had three factories but two of them based in Takoradi had been divested, leaving only the Tema factory and insisted that this should not be divested because it is the pride of the nation.

"It is not only money that matters but image too", he said.

Mr. Awua said since the CPC became financially autonomous from the Ghana Cocoa Board in 1992 it has consistently made profits and its latest accounts show a profit of about 20 billion cedis.

He said with the expansion programme, more of Ghana's cocoa beans would be processed before export and assuming that value is added to all the 200,000 tonnes of the cocoa produced annually, foreign exchange earnings in the sector would be increased by 60 million dollars.

Mr. Awua said by May next year, CPC would get International Standards Organisation (ISO) 9002 certification for quality management. As part of plans to get ISO 14000 series certification, it is putting up a 700 million cedis waste treatment plant.

Capt. Effah-Darteh commended the management for the company's performance and urged them to assist the TMA in its sanitation programmes