Nominations for the historic first edition of Ghana Cocoa Awards (GCA) have opened from 20th September till 31st October, 2019.
The GCA is a cocoa industry excellence motivation initiative organised by VC Media with support from strategic industry partners.
“With over 30 Awards, the GCA would be honouring the true heroes behind Ghana’s economic backbone”, a statement signed by Founder and Events Director, Kojo Hayford noted.
Mr. Hayford added, “honouring the hardworking actors and true heroes of Ghana’s economic backbone is very relevant in appreciating their contribution to the economy and national development, and to spur them on for even greater achievements in production, processing, innovation, sustainability and consumption.”
He commended the industry regulator, Ghana Cocoa Board, for excellent work done over the years in achieving and maintaining the production of premium quality cocoa beans that Ghana is celebrated for all over the world.
GCA is a grand celebration of excellence in the cocoa industry and would assemble outstanding players from across the various stages of the value chain for special recognition.
Sustainability Support
Categories for the historic first edition include Cocoa Sustainability Literacy Award (Essay competition), Best Journalist for Cocoa Reporting, Best Certification Scheme of the year and Best Cocoa Financing Institutions of the year.
Agro Input, Buying and Processing
Also covered are Licenced Buying Company of the year, Haulage Company of the year, Agro Input of the year for fertilizer, chemical and farm implement divisions, Best Processing Company of the year for Tertiary, Semi-finished and Artisanal divisions, Chocolate Brand of the Year for Large Scale and Artisanal divisions, Cocoa Beverage Product of the year and Cocoa Cosmetics Product of the year.
Sustainability, Innovation and Consumption Leaders
Others are Cocoa Products Distributor of the year, the Most Innovative Cocoa Product of the year, Best Packaging Innovation of the year, Cocoa Community Energy Innovation of the year, Research & Development Project of the year and Technology for Cocoa Value Chain of the year.
There are also the Cocoa Consumption Campaign of the year, Best Cocoa Consumption Ambassador of the year, Best Cocoa NGO of the year, and Best Cocoa Sustainability Initiative of the year.
Outstanding Cocoa Personalities
Ghana Cocoa Awards will in addition recognise Sustainability Advocacy Personality of the year, Cocoa Entrepreneur of the year, Cocoa Lifetime Achievement Honorary award and the ultimate, the Tetteh Quarshie Cocoa Personality of the year.
Deadline for the submission of entries is 31st October 2019. To submit an entry visit www.GhanaCocoaAwards.com/nominate for the criteria and nomination forms.
The historic first Ghana Cocoa Awards Gala Night is slated for November 22, 2019 at the plush Marriott Hotel, Airport City Accra.
Media partners are MediaGeneral, Finder newspaper and Cocoa Post.
Visit www.GhanaCocoaAwards.com or email ghanacocoaawards@gmail.com for information on sponsorship, partnership and participation enquiries.
In what way does cocoa certification have impact on cocoa sustainability?.
Answer: certification have a direct impact on sustainability when
we take the following into consideration;
1. Good Agricultural Practices(GAPs),
a. In certification, farmers are trained to plant their cocoa 10 by 10 feet.
b. They are also trained to do sanitary pruning.
c. They are also trained that, they should not allow their cocoa pods to over rip before harvesting.
d. Farmers are trained in the proper way of fermentation, which includes even fermentation.
e. They are also trained on post-harvest and pre-harvest periods.
2. Good environmental practices(GEPs)
a. Farmers are trained not to ban weed after weeding their farms but they should rather leave it on the farm to save as organic manure.
b. Farmers are trained not to farm in protected areas which includes forest reserves.
c. Farmers are trained on how to use the approve agrochemical such as Actar Star, Confidor, Akate Star, Akate Power etc
3. Health and Safety of farm works.
Please with all these explanations I can say that certification have a lot of impact on sustainability. Thanks