The General Manager of Cadbury Cocoa World, Gerrard Baldwin, has described Ghana cocoa as best quality and a key ingredient of Cadbury chocolates and other confectioneries.
Mr. Baldwin added that about 25% of cocoa used for making cadbury chocolates is sourced from Ghana.
According to Baldwin, Cadbury World, through Mondelez Cocoa Life has rolled out a $400 million livelihood empowerment project in cocoa growing communities in Africa as part of efforts to better the lots of cocoa farmers.
He made these remarks when five outstanding Ghanaian cocoa farmers visited Cadbury World at Bournville as part of a two-week visit to the UK.
Mr. Baldwin used the farmers’ visit to walk them through the operations of the company and its recreational facilities. He commended the cocoa farmers for their efforts at improving the quality of cocoa produced and encouraged them to adopt modern technologies to make cocoa farming attractive to the younger generation.
Barnett Quaicoo, the Manager of Cocoa Marketing Company ltd UK, described Cadbury as one of the biggest trading partners in the UK which sources cocoa beans from Ghana Cocoa Board.
Mr Quaicoo added that the choice of Cadbury for the farmers’ visit was to allow them experience cocoa processing and interact with the buyers of their produce.
Noah Amenyah, the Senior Public Affairs Manager of Ghana Cocoa Board who accompanied the farmers said the cocoa farmers produce an average of about 2,000kg per hectare.
Mr Amenyah added that the farmers had maintained best agronomic and environmental conservation practices to produce the best cocoa to emerge as award winners for the 2015 and 2016 cocoa seasons. According to him, the trip will encourage other cocoa farmers to work harder to win similar awards.
The farmers were Nana Kweku Adu, 2015 National Best Cocoa Farmer, Nana Opoku Gyamfi, 2016 National Best Cocoa Farmer, Madam Martha Addai, 2016 Most Enterprising Female Cocoa Farmer. The rest are; Nana Johnson Mensah, Western Regional Chief Farmer and Nana Obeng Akrofi, Eastern Regional Chief farmer.