COCOBOD is ready for 2006/7 cocoa season – Chief Executive

The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) on Wednesday said it had made adequate preparations to eliminate bottlenecks that might affect the smooth running of the 2006/7 major cocoa season, which opens in October 2006. Speaking at a press conference ahead of the celebration of Cocoa Producers Alliance (COPAL) Cocoa Day, Mr Isaac Osei, Chief Executive of COCOBOD, said 14 bales of jute sacks and twines, enough to allow Licensed Buying Companies (LBCs) to purchase and bag about 300,000 tonnes of beans had been released. Last week, COCOBOD announced the signing of a trade finance facility agreement involving 810 million dollars to be used to finance cocoa purchases for the 2006/7 crop year. The money would be made available to LBCs as seed money for them to purchase cocoa during the new season. Mr Osei said the loan agreement would provide buyers "adequate cash flow" to make prompt payment for the produce from farmers. He said a 50,000 tonne-capacity warehouse at Tema would be inaugurated as part of measures to minimize congestion of cocoa beans at the country's ports. Similar facilities are being constructed at Takoradi. "In addition, we're using private warehouses to fill the gap. We're also going to manage the scheduling of truck arrivals to limit the pile-up," he said but quickly added “but that is not to say we’ll eliminate the problem completely”. Mr Osei said a significant portion of Ghana's cocoa trees were infected with swollen shoot disease. He said in pursuit of the policy to increase local processing of cocoa, COCOBOD had finalized negotiations with some major firms to grind the beans into semi-finished and finished products. One such company that would soon come on board is Afro Tropic with an installed processing capacity of 10,000 tonnes, according to Mr Osei. Others which are also expanding their processing capacity include Swiss confectionery giant, Barry Callebaut and the Cocoa Processing Company, both in Tema. Mr Osei put the current total domestic processing capacity at 285,000 tonnes. He said increased domestic consumption of cocoa products was being encouraged through celebrations such as the COPAL Cocoa Day as a means to sustain the industry. The day, which falls on October 1 every year, was instituted by the Cocoa Producers Alliance to promote the local processing and consumption of cocoa to boost consumption in member countries. This year's COPAL celebration would be marked at Sunyani on October 1 and would include activities such as a health walk, recognition of some farmers, fair and exhibition.