GTB organises cocoa trail for pupils, Monday February, 14, 2011, Spread

About 70 pupils from selected schools in the Greater Accra and Eastern regions were last Friday treated to a Cocoa Trail organised by the Ghana Tourist Board (GTB) as part of activities marking National Chocolate Day which falls today.

The National Chocolate Day was instituted to allow Ghanaians and visitors alike the opportunity to use cocoa, the nation's most significant export crop, as an expression of love on Valentine's Day.

The other advantage of this idea is to celebrate the many nutritional and health benefits of cocoa.

The trip took officials of the GTB and the pupils from the Shiayennoh Primary School in Accra and the Mampong-Akuapem Junior High School to the more-than-a-century-old Tetteh Quarshie Cocoa Farm at Mampong and Adjeikrom, a cocoa-growing community near Begoro in the Eastern Region which was established by the late Samuel Adjei, the father of Mr Ako Adjei, a member of Ghana’s Big Six who fought for Ghana’s independence.

The first port of call was the Tetteh Quarshie Cocoa Farm, where the Deputy Director of the GTB in Charge of Operations, Mr Frank Kofigah, joined by the District Chief Executive for Akuapem-North, Mr George Opare-Addo, distributed bars of chocolate to the pupils.

The farm was established in 1876 by the late Tetteh Quarshie from seeds he brought from Fernando Po Island. From that small beginning grew Ghana’s major cocoa industry.

The farm has, among other cocoa trees, the two trees originally planted by the late Tetteh Quarshie which are still bearing fruit and a museum which has some belongings of the pioneer of Ghana’s cocoa industry.
Addressing the children, Mr Kofigah said it was regrettable that Valentine’s Day had become associated with immorality and said the GTB was set to change the notion and rather use the day to celebrate Ghana’s chocolate.

He urged the children to study hard to become responsible people who could contribute to the growth of the country.

Mr Opare-Addo, for his part, said the district prided itself on being the pacesetter of Ghana’s development because it was the area that started producing the crop which had become the backbone of Ghana’s economy.

The children were later taken through the process of cocoa production from harvesting until the seeds are bagged.

At Adjeikrom, the children learnt how cocoa is grown, maintained, harvested, fermented and dried.
The village is named after its founder, Samuel Adjei, who bought 1,800 acres of land there and began cultivating plantain, cocoyam and cassava.

He soon added cocoa to the farm and the village became a cocoa-buying point for neighbouring villages, an arrangement that is still in existence.

Picture: A caretaker on the Tetteh Quarshie Cocoa Farm explaining the various stages of cocoa development to the children.



About 70 pupils from selected schools in the Greater Accra and Eastern regions were last Friday treated to a Cocoa Trail organised by the Ghana Tourist Board (GTB) as part of activities marking National Chocolate Day which falls today.

The National Chocolate Day was instituted to allow Ghanaians and visitors alike the opportunity to use cocoa, the nation's most significant export crop, as an expression of love on Valentine's Day.

The other advantage of this idea is to celebrate the many nutritional and health benefits of cocoa.

The trip took officials of the GTB and the pupils from the Shiayennoh Primary School in Accra and the Mampong-Akuapem Junior High School to the more-than-a-century-old Tetteh Quarshie Cocoa Farm at Mampong and Adjeikrom, a cocoa-growing community near Begoro in the Eastern Region which was established by the late Samuel Adjei, the father of Mr Ako Adjei, a member of Ghana’s Big Six who fought for Ghana’s independence.

The first port of call was the Tetteh Quarshie Cocoa Farm, where the Deputy Director of the GTB in Charge of Operations, Mr Frank Kofigah, joined by the District Chief Executive for Akuapem-North, Mr George Opare-Addo, distributed bars of chocolate to the pupils.

The farm was established in 1876 by the late Tetteh Quarshie from seeds he brought from Fernando Po Island. From that small beginning grew Ghana’s major cocoa industry.

The farm has, among other cocoa trees, the two trees originally planted by the late Tetteh Quarshie which are still bearing fruit and a museum which has some belongings of the pioneer of Ghana’s cocoa industry.

Addressing the children, Mr Kofigah said it was regrettable that Valentine’s Day had become associated with immorality and said the GTB was set to change the notion and rather use the day to celebrate Ghana’s chocolate.

He urged the children to study hard to become responsible people who could contribute to the growth of the country.

Mr Opare-Addo, for his part, said the district prided itself on being the pacesetter of Ghana’s development because it was the area that started producing the crop which had become the backbone of Ghana’s economy.

The children were later taken through the process of cocoa production from harvesting until the seeds are bagged.

At Adjeikrom, the children learnt how cocoa is grown, maintained, harvested, fermented and dried.
The village is named after its founder, Samuel Adjei, who bought 1,800 acres of land there and began cultivating plantain, cocoyam and cassava.

He soon added cocoa to the farm and the village became a cocoa-buying point for neighbouring villages, an arrangement that is still in existence.

Picture: A caretaker on the Tetteh Quarshie Cocoa Farm explaining the various stages of cocoa development to the children.