Tetteh Quarshie did not bring the first cocoa pods to Ghana - Prof. Akosua Perbi

Celebrated cocoa farmer Tetteh Quarshie was not the first person to bring cocoa pods into the country, renowned historian and Associate Professor at the Department of History at the University of Ghana Prof. Akosua Adoma Perbi has stated.

Speaking at the sixth edition of Achimota School’s 90th anniversary education forum Prof. Perbi noted that “historically cocoa was initially brought into Ghana from Brazil by Rev. Haas. Between 1851 and the 1880s, Rev. Haas, Mole and other missionaries cultivated cocoa.”

“..Tetteh Quarshie was an apprentice at the Basel Mission workshop in Akropong before he left for Fernando Po and popularised cocoa by beginning commercial farming of the crop at Mampong Akuapim.

Available records indicate that Dutch missionaries planted cocoa in the coastal areas of the then Gold Coast as early as 1815, whilst in 1857 Basel missionaries also planted cocoa at Aburi.

However, these did not result in the spread of cocoa cultivation until the arrival of Tetteh Quarshie’s pods from Fernando Po.