Chief Executive of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Joseph Boahen Aidoo, has challenged participants at the just ended Cocoa Validation Workshop in Accra to be cocoa consumption ambassadors and promote cocoa products wherever they find themselves.
Mr Boahen Aidoo indicated that if Ghana could process not less than 50% of its output, it was important for the participants to be at the forefront of the cocoa consumption campaign.
He stressed that Ghanaians need to take advantage of the health and nutritional benefits of consuming cocoa, adding that Ghana cannot lose out on the benefits of cocoa whiles it produces premium quality cocoa.
He expressed worry at the low per capita cocoa consumption of 0.52kg for Ghana as compared to about 8kg for some western countries.
He noted that apart from the health and nutritional benefits of cocoa consumption, Ghana stands to gain when we get new markets like China, India and some parts of Africa to develop the taste for cocoa to increase revenue.
‘Getting China and India alone to patronize Ghana’s cocoa would be a huge market opportunity to increase revenue and at the same time a good incentive to expand the industry’, Mr Aidoo added.
He said the Cocoa Validation Workshop was to finalize the Cocoa Sector Development Strategy II (CSDS II) document and urged all stakeholders to own it for effective implementation.
The cocoa consumption promotion agenda is said to be in line with the strategy to maximise Ghana’s revenue from its top agricultural export cocoa.
Ghana exports 80% of its annual cocoa produce to the European Union where it is processed and value-added into finished products like chocolate.