Ghana's scientists brew new recipes as demand for cocoa drops

Tafo, June 1: Faced with slumping world prices, cocoa farmers disillusioned with traditional exports for chocolate may soon be turning to the bottle.

Cocoa butter soap, soft drinks, jam, jelly, vinegar, fertiliser — even brandy — could all one day boost farmers’ incomes, but only if they find viable production processes.


Scientists in Ghana are trying to do just that.


‘‘What CRIG has been doing is now there for industrialists to pick up,’’ said food technologist Helena Oppong of the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG), a cluster of buildings, some dating from the British colonial era, in the lush green hills of central Ghana near Tafo, 120 km north of the capital Accra.


Among the offices, laboratories and library are pilot plants for the commercial processing of cocoa by-products and waste.


It took Oppong and her fellow researchers seven years and over $ one million to develop the plants under a project of the London-based International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO) and cash from the Amsterdam-based Common Fund for Commodities and Ghana’s Cocoa Board (Cocobod).

‘‘In fact, we started research on cocoa by-products and non-traditional products from cocoa beans 30 years ago,’’ said biochemist Jemmy Takraman, whose pilot project produces ethanol alcohol from cocoa sweatings.


Cocoa farmers have long known how to get drunk on sweatings — the juice that trickles out of fermenting cocoa beans as they lie heaped on the ground and covered by banana leaves.


The Institute developed what Takraman calls ‘‘the polytank method’’. Using a king-size bucket of 1,400 litres he can produce up to 200 litres of sweatings from a tonne of beans in 12 hours. The ICCO project allowed for the purchase of a German-built distillation plant which can process 200 litres of sweatings into 12 litres of almost pure alcohol, the basis for a brandy which has a mild cocoa odour and an excellent brandy taste.


‘‘It looks like the production is going to be profitable. There are two consultants who are doing the feasibility studies. They haven’t finished,’’ said Takraman. His pilot plant produces 43-per cent alcohol brandy from beans from the institute’s cocoa plantations. But today, with the crop already harvested, the plant lies quiet.


Cracking open the last bottle in stock for a tasting reveals a quality not matched by all cocoa home-brew.

A small factory in neighbouring Ivory Coast produces cocoa liquor weaker than Takraman’s and in which a Reuters reporter detected a distinct taste of fermented, dried cocoa beans.


Takraman’s own brandy is on the other hand delicious, and comparable to other spirits such as the Eastern liquor arrack. Drinking it, a Reuters reporter noted an immediate feeling of well-being — and importantly, no headache the next morning.


Besides liquor the Tafo institute has other pilot projects. ‘‘We are waiting for the commercialisation after the economic analysis. Then we know which plants are profitable and which ones are not,’’ said Chris Agyente Badu, standing alongside five sturdy looking machines which produce soap from beans not used for chocolate due to mould, insect damage or germination. It is easy to imagine cocoa butter soap, if well advertised, being a hit among natural skin care fanatics. Cocoa butter moisturiser has long been a cosmetic cabinet staple. Oppong makes cocoa jam and jelly from sweatings or pulp juice. Pectin, used to thicken jam and jelly, is extracted from sweatings by precipitation in 60 percent alcohol.


‘‘It is our vision that once we are able to produce pectin in large quantities, we can supply local industries which are now importing pectin,’’ Oppong said.


Another useful by-product are the husks of the large cocoa pods, discarded after harvesting and usually left to rot. But the husks are rich in potash hich can be used to produce a soft soap or fertiliser. The Ghana institute has also developed a method to use shredded husks as animal feed.

‘‘We use a sort of meat mincer to shred the husks, then we sun-dry the shreds which turn into peanut-shaped pellets. After blending with dried fish, minerals, calcium, a vitamin mix and corn chaff,’’ Takraman said.


‘‘It makes a good compound feed for pigs, goats and rabbits.’’ French cocoa researcher Francois Ruf said the use of husks for animal feed and fertiliser had been studied widely but that logistics and disease were a major obstacle to widespread use.


‘‘We are all thinking about how to use it. The problem is that the husks are in small heaps on small farms. The cost of collecting them is very high,’’ he said.