Cocoa is a seasonal crop with several nutritional and health benefits. The products from the crop generally serve as valuable ingredients or materials in many industries.
Cocoa liquor, cocoa powder and cocoa butter are used by the confectionery industry. The cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries also make use of cocoa butter.
Potash from the dried cocoa husk is used in many soap processing industries, the poultry feeds industry also makes use of the cocoa shells or husk in feed formulations.
Even scientific innovations and advancements in food science and technology have made it possible to make wine beverages from cocoa juice.
These are all indicators which can be used to estimate the value derived from a single cocoa pod.
On average, a single cocoa pod weighs 400g (14 oz) and each yields 35 – 40g dried beans. This yield (35 – 40g) therefore represents 9-10% of the total weight in the pod.
So the question is, where does the rest constituting 90% of the cocoa pod composition go after the beans are taken out?
Is the cocoa beans the only valuable part of the cocoa pod? Is there a way for farmers to get more value from cocoa?
As you reflect on these questions, I hope you are beginning to side with me on how valuable the cocoa pod is.
How much is a single cocoa seed valued in Ghana?
Inside the pod, the cocoa beans are found along a central stem and are covered in a sweet white mucus pulp. On average, there are up to 30 beans in a single pod, each weighing approximately 1 gram.
The farmgate price of cocoa in Ghana as announced for the 2022/2023 crop season is GHS800 and took effect on Friday, 7th October 2022.
Using the current buying price, a bag of cocoa which weighs 64 kg will contain approximately 64,000 cocoa beans. Thus, in Ghana, a single cocoa seed or bean may be valued approximately at 0.0125 GHC
With the above statistics, it is obvious that farmers and stakeholders in the cocoa industry begin to adopt the adage“ little drop of water makes a mighty ocean” to “every bean of cocoa, makes a mighty income” and strongly adhere to it to ensure a sustainable cocoa production and income.
Conclusion
Now that the value of a single cocoa seed has been fairly estimated, it is important that no single cocoa seed be left out to go waste along the value chain, especially from farm to shed and then to industrial processing.
To ensure that these losses are reduced, it is imperative that cocoa farmers be sensitize about the estimated cash value of each cocoa seed (0.0125 GHC) so that they would be motivated to keep track to each one of the cocoa pod and seed from the pod until it get to the sack.
Educating farmers to value cocoa at the seed and pod will be one best way to improve cocoa production and output, enhance farmers income, and boast national annual cocoa haulage.