The CEO of COCOBOD, Joseph Boahen Aidoo, has revealed Ghana will soon be establishing a $60million Cocoa Processing Factory.
The factory, which is a partnership between the Chinese and the Ghana governments, according to the CEO will boost fortunes of the sector. China is awarding a grant of $35 million while Ghana will top up with $25million.
A team from China is currently in the country to conduct feasibility studies at a site in Sefwi Wiaso in the Western Region where the factory will be built.
Announcing the development to journalists Wednesday, Boahen-Aidoo said “the factory…will run through the entire course…that’s from production of butter, liquor and down to the tertiary level which is the production of chocolate.”
The establishment of the factory, he said is very significant as there is a rising consumption pattern of chocolate in the Asian countries, particularly India and China.
“Therefore, it has been our objective to enter the Asian market, focusing essentially, on China.
“So the acceptance of the Chinese government to partner with Ghana government to put up this factory actually is a major step in realizing our objective and our vision of expanding the scope of consumption of cocoa and also in realization of the president’s vision that in the next four, five years Ghana should be able to process not less than fifty percent of our cocoa beans here in Ghana,” he stated.
Ghana, he noted has around 450.000 metric tons installed capacity but functionally only about 250.000 metric tons is being processed, saying “we envisage to improve upon the productivity of cocoa in Ghana and in the anticipation of likely increase of production, we will certainly need more factory and the Sefwi Wiaso factory is very timely.”
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM.
