Veep refute claims about child labour in cocoa sector

Tema, Sept. 9, GNA - Vice President John Dramani Mahama has refuted claims by some child welfare groups in the United States that Ghana employs child labour on cocoa farms.

"I wish to state that Ghana is a signatory to the various conventions on Child and Forced Labour and would never allow any infractions especially in a prime sector such as cocoa." Vice President Mahama was responding to the allegations during the launch of cocoa products manufactured by Cargill Ghana Limited (CGL) at Tema on Wednesday.

Cargill is one of the world's leading brands in cocoa confectionary and the launch of the company's cocoa powder and butter christened 'Good Taste of Ghana' is to stamp the country's supremacy in the cocoa beverage sector by using the products for dairy, bakery, ice creams, compound coatings, desserts and as fillings in food preparations. The products are also meant to market processed Ghanaian cocoa products as global health artefacts.

Vice President Mahama assured the international community that Ghana was not indulging in acts that infringe on the rights of children. He said the country would co-operate with organisations still harbouring doubts to inspect the cocoa facilities to clear the erroneous position.

Vice President Mahama explained that it was a mistake for people to assume that minors accompanying their parents to farm were being forced into hard labour. "Rural farm families own small cocoa farms usually planted on family lands or rented through traditional land tenure systems.Minors accompany their parents to farm as part of their social acculturation," he said.

Touching on the operations of Cargill in the Ghanaian Free Zones enclave, Vice President Mahama said the 100 million-dollar factory was an endorsement of the attractiveness of Ghana as an investment destination.

"Government is impressed and happy at Cargill's capacity to transform Ghana's cocoa into a wide range of products that are sold on the global market and thereby providing the country with the highest level of value addition to date." He said Cargill had reinforced Ghana's pre-eminence in the global market place.

The Vice President also affirmed government's decision to provide incentives to companies engaged in tertiary processing of cocoa geared towards boosting earnings from exported cocoa products, ensure technology transfer and augment employment generation.

He said the inducement package was meant to facilitate the processing of about 60 per cent of cocoa beans locally, as announced by President John Evans Atta Mills in his first Sessional address. Mr. Leo Winters, Managing Director of CGL, said the Management was committed to working with the Government to support the growth of the cocoa sector through initiatives with farmers and local businesses to spur job creation, increase export revenues and also help grow the local economy.

He said this partnership was already bearing fruits in the Ashanti Region where the company had teamed up with CARE, a child related organisation, to improve educational opportunities in the communities where they operate, which had helped to increase school attendance by 17.5 per cent

Mr. Winters was of the opinion that Cargill's huge investment in the Ghanaian economy would pave the way for other leading manufacturing giants to also acquire a foothold in the growth of Ghana. The Director of Cocoa Powder Sales of Cargill International, Mr Piet van Amelrooij, was upbeat that marketing of Ghana using cocoa would reap immense rewards from the global food supply chain for the country. 9 Sept. 09