Cocoa farmers must have access to final products - Chief

Nana Amaniampong Boateng, Nkosuohene of Akyem-Kukurantumi, says it is not fair that cocoa farmers could not purchase the end product of due to cost.

He said there are many cocoa farmers with large acreages of plantations who have contributed to the cocoa industry for many years, yet, “they have never tasted chocolate in their life”.

Nana Boateng who was speaking at the official opening of the Central Nursery of Tree Global, a tree nursing company at Tafo, called on stakeholders in the cocoa industry to address the issue in particular and living conditions of cocoa farmers in general.

According to Nana Boateng, chocolate which is the end product of cocoa and a delicacy should not be so expensive that “we the producers of the raw material cannot buy”.

Tree Global, in partnership with Mondelez, the largest buyer of Ghana’s cocoa is producing more than 100,000 innovative cocoa seedlings to be distributed to cocoa farmers this cocoa season, “in the cocoa life communities of Mondelez”, under a special project to improve the livelihoods of farmers.

So far more than 60,000 of the seedlings have been distributed free of charge to cocoa farmers at Bosuso, in the Fanteakwa District, Kofikorm in the New Juaben Municipality and other communities in Upper-West Akyem and Suhum Districts.

The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Mr Fifi Fiavi Kwetey, who commended tree global for the innovation of the seedlings using environmental friendly technology, indicated that the agricultural needs an injection of greater technology to modernise the sector.

He said the improvement of the livelihood of cocoa farmers is key to government as well as the quality of its produce as a means to increase global competitiveness.

He expressed the hope that with the Tree global seedling technology, Ghana could hit its production target.

Mr Antwi-Boasiako Sekyere, Eastern Regional Minister, said the new technology would ensure high yields, while cocoa farming would be the frontier for the youth in the region.

This, he, said, would be a shift from illegal mining popularly called “galamsey, which has caused huge devastation to farmlands and water bodies.