Ivory Coast and Ghana account for almost 70% of world supplies for cocoa beans
• Ghana has attained a cocoa beans production feat of 1.1 million metric tonnes
• This was revealed by the Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD
• The said figure was for the 2020/21 crop season
The Ghana COCOBOD has announced it has recorded 1.1 million metric tonnes of cocoa beans production in the 2020/21 crop season, a Joy Business report has said.
This comes after Ghana had earlier projected to achieve 900,000 tonnes of cocoa beans production for the crop season
According to the agency’s chief executive, Joseph Boahen Aidoo, who described the feat achieved as historic, it is about a 45% increase over the 2019/2020 production making it the most recorded of an earlier one million metric tonnes achieved during the 2009/2010 crop season.
Speaking at an event organised by Olam Ghana, Boahen Aidoo said the COCOBOD has commenced processes to sign a US$1.5 billion syndication loan to purchase cocoa beans meant for the next cocoa crop season for 2021/2022.
“We have exceeded our production target for the year and the money we took as loan didn’t take us anywhere. Very soon, we will sign the syndication for the next crop season and I must say we have made arrangements to get the banks on board to chart this path,” Boahen Aidoo said.
He added the said loan is expected to be secured to by October 2021.
The historic achievement according to market watchers is said to be attributed to the ‘The Living Income Differential’ policy which has raised more income of cocoa farmers, the rehabilitation of old aged and disease-infected cocoa farms, cultivation programmes under an irrigation system and hand pollination carried out across farms.
Already, Ghana and Ivory Coast account for almost 70% of world supplies for cocoa beans.