Cocoa Day launched, Thursday, September 2, 2010
Ghana and other cocoa producing countries across the globe will have to adopt modern systems of farming to counter the increasing scarcity of agriculture land for cocoa production in order to sustain their output.
“Cocoa will have to compete for land with other crops which implies that we must modernise cocoa growing otherwise cocoa growing will stagnate or the total volume of cocoa production could even decline.”
Mr Hope Sona Ebai ,the General Secretary of the Cocoa Producers Alliance (COPAL), an association for the world’s cocoa producers, made the remark at the launch of the 2010 COPAL Cocoa Day in Accra yesterday.
This year’s celebrations, which is on the theme: “Cocoa-Our Health, Our Wealth, will take place at Hohoe in the Volta Region.
The celebration will start with a pre-cocoa day celebration on September 30, featuring activities which will include education on the health benefits of cocoa products to create awareness on topical issues on health and also health screening for the people of Hohoe and its environs.
The main event which will also feature an exhibition of cocoa products and by-products will be the grand durbar of the chiefs and people of Hohoe and stakeholders in the cocoa industry.
The 67th General Assembly and Council of Ministers Meeting of the COPAL held at the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2004 declared October 1, every year as COPAL Cocoa Day to promote local consumption of cocoa and derivatives in member countries.
Ghana adopted the day in 2005 and continues to celebrate it ever since the first celebration took place in Accra on October 1, 2005.
Mr Ebai observed that with climate change dominating topical issues on the environment, cocoa will compete with other food crops and non-food crops to produce bio-fuels that is being given as an alternate to petroleum.
He said this would lead to a situation where the industry now had to deal with consumers who were more critical than before.
He predicted that “the consumer will ask for chocolate that has been produced, traded and manufactured in sustainable ways, meeting economic, social and environmental criteria.”
Launching the event ,the Chief Executive Officer of the COCOBOD, Mr Tony Fofie, commended cocoa farmers in the country for their immense contribution to sustaining the crop and ultimately, the country’s economy.
Espousing some benefits of chocolate, he said it contained more than 300 chemicals, including flavonoids, a naturally occurring substance found in plant-based foods that help control blood pressure and also help balance certain hormones in the body.
Flavonoids also act as antioxidants to protect the body from aging and heart diseases.
Mr Fofie stated that scientific studies indicated that chocolate had a quality similar to aspirin that helped to prevent blood clots.
According to statistics from the COCOBOD, Ghana’s current cocoa production stood at 600,000 metric tonnes with a little over 20 per cent being processed locally and the remaining going to the international market.
“Cocoa will have to compete for land with other crops which implies that we must modernise cocoa growing otherwise cocoa growing will stagnate or the total volume of cocoa production could even decline.”
Mr Hope Sona Ebai ,the General Secretary of the Cocoa Producers Alliance (COPAL), an association for the world’s cocoa producers, made the remark at the launch of the 2010 COPAL Cocoa Day in Accra yesterday.
This year’s celebrations, which is on the theme: “Cocoa-Our Health, Our Wealth, will take place at Hohoe in the Volta Region.
The celebration will start with a pre-cocoa day celebration on September 30, featuring activities which will include education on the health benefits of cocoa products to create awareness on topical issues on health and also health screening for the people of Hohoe and its environs.
The main event which will also feature an exhibition of cocoa products and by-products will be the grand durbar of the chiefs and people of Hohoe and stakeholders in the cocoa industry.
The 67th General Assembly and Council of Ministers Meeting of the COPAL held at the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2004 declared October 1, every year as COPAL Cocoa Day to promote local consumption of cocoa and derivatives in member countries.
Ghana adopted the day in 2005 and continues to celebrate it ever since the first celebration took place in Accra on October 1, 2005.
Mr Ebai observed that with climate change dominating topical issues on the environment, cocoa will compete with other food crops and non-food crops to produce bio-fuels that is being given as an alternate to petroleum.
He said this would lead to a situation where the industry now had to deal with consumers who were more critical than before.
He predicted that “the consumer will ask for chocolate that has been produced, traded and manufactured in sustainable ways, meeting economic, social and environmental criteria.”
Launching the event ,the Chief Executive Officer of the COCOBOD, Mr Tony Fofie, commended cocoa farmers in the country for their immense contribution to sustaining the crop and ultimately, the country’s economy.
Espousing some benefits of chocolate, he said it contained more than 300 chemicals, including flavonoids, a naturally occurring substance found in plant-based foods that help control blood pressure and also help balance certain hormones in the body.
Flavonoids also act as antioxidants to protect the body from aging and heart diseases.
Mr Fofie stated that scientific studies indicated that chocolate had a quality similar to aspirin that helped to prevent blood clots.
According to statistics from the COCOBOD, Ghana’s current cocoa production stood at 600,000 metric tonnes with a little over 20 per cent being processed locally and the remaining going to the international market.
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