Ghana to Get $1.5 Billion in Cocoa-Trade Financing

Sept. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Ghana’s state-owned Cocoa Board will sign a $1.5 billion trade-finance agreement with 12 banks for the purchase of beans from growers in the 2010-11 season, said Yaw Adu-Ampomah, deputy chief executive officer.

This is an increase on the $1.2 billion agreement signed last year, Adu-Ampomah said today in a phone interview from the capital, Accra. Standard Bank Group Ltd. of South Africa is the lead arranger of this year’s deal, which will be signed on Sept. 22, he said.

Ghana is the world’s second-biggest cocoa producer, after Ivory Coast. The West African country’s 2010-11 harvest is expected to be between 700,000 and 750,000 tons, Cocoa Board Chief Executive Officer Anthony Fofie said on Aug. 26.

The Cocoa Board bought about 640,000 tons of beans during the 2009-10 season, which closed on Sept. 9, almost 10 percent less than the 710,000 tons purchased in the previous season, Adu-Ampomah said. About 40,000 tons of cocoa was bought during this year’s 13-week light-crop season, compared with 60,000 tons in the previous season.

Ghana’s next buying season may open next week, once the trade finance agreement is concluded, he said.