Cocoa farmers advised to ferment cocoa beans properly before drying

Nkawie (Ash), Dec 29, GNA- Opanin Owusu Dramani, Ampenim District Chief Farmer of the Cocoa, Coffee and Sheanut Farmers Association, has advised cocoa farmers in the area to ferment cocoa beans for the six days before drying.

He said the proper fermentation of cocoa had been the practice in the country leading to Ghana gaining the reputation of producing the finest cocoa in the world.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency at Nkawie on how to eliminate the purple cocoa beans in the industry, Opanin Dramani said the beans should be put in mats and plantain leaves for proper fermentation. He regretted that farmers for want of quick money do not ferment the beans this way but rather ferment the cocoa on flat mats which he pointed out, did not enable the beans to be properly fermented. Opanin Dramani appealed to the national executive of the association to provide the district chief farmers with means of transport to enable them to go round to educate farmers, techniques in fermenting cocoa beans.

He cautioned purchasing clerks not to buy poor quality cocoa beans and warned that any clerk who did that would be seriously dealt with.