Stakeholders in cocoa industry fight challenges

Published in the Daily Graphic on 01/06/2010' pg 16 (spread, middle pg)

Story: Matilda Attram
STAKEHOLDERS in the cocoa industry from Africa, Asia, Latin America, Central and Pacific Islands, South-East Asia and Europe are meeting at a workshop in Accra to deliberate on sustainable cocoa productivity in major cocoa-producing countries.
The five-day workshop is intended to offer practical insight into and ideas for cocoa researchers to enable them to solve common problems associated with cocoa production.
The event is being organised by the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) in collaboration with the International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO) and Bioversity International with funds from the Common Fund for Commodities.
Opening the workshop, the Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD, Mr Anthony Fofie, indicated that the increasing global awareness of the need to pursue development in a sustainable manner under the guiding principle that development must satisfy present needs without compromising the ability of future generations posed a great challenge to cocoa production.
He said the low yields in cocoa productivity resulted from the many challenges facing the cocoa industry.
“This poses a big challenge to cocoa production as yields are low and quality is invariably poor in most countries and needs to be improved,” he stated.
According to him, improvement in productivity and quality in the industry would enhance the economic well-being of a lot of cocoa farmers, thereby improving on productivity.
He mentioned poor planting material and the low nutrient states of soils as some of the challenges that shattered the dreams of most cocoa farmers in production.
He expressed the hope that an improved cocoa productivity would also serve as an incentive to attract the youth into cocoa cultivation.
The Director of Economics and Statistics Division of the ICCO, Dr Jean-Marc Anga, stressed the need for cocoa-producing countries to sustain their partnership in fighting the challenges of the industry.
He said although the industry tackled its thorny issues such as cocoa quality, cocoa traceability, food safety concerns, environmental concerns and social ethics, there were two important challenges they faced in trying to bring about a sustainable cocoa economy.
He mentioned the two important challenges as the ability to consider increase in the income of cocoa farmers and how to meet the requirements of chocolate and cocoa product consumers who would want to address health and safety concerns of the industry.
In a statement, a representative of Bioversity International, Mr Stephan Weise, urged participating countries to locate other different means of achieving a sustainable cocoa economy.