President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said Ghana is seeking to explore Asian markets as part of efforts to introduce the country’s cocoa products to increase market shares and output.
He believes that apart from ramping up cocoa production to penetrate existing global markets, the Asian continent such as India, Malaysia and others represent a huge new market for Ghana to tap into.
Speaking during a panel discussion with Bloomberg’s Jennifer Zabasajja at the 2023 Qatar Economic Forum, President Akufo-Addo said government is making systematic efforts to introduce Ghanaian cocoa products across new markets in Asia.
“We have to do that to penetrate those markets because we cannot continue to be reliant on markets where we have seen some difficulties of that with over reliance and especially since we have committed to expanding the output of our cocoa, we hope to by end this decade, double Ghana’s cocoa production output to get much closer to the Ivorian cocoa output”
President Akufo-Addo however touted his government's resolve in improving the cocoa sector despite challenges associated with child labour, small scale illegal mining and among others which have plagued the cocoa sector in recent times.
MA/FNOQ
