The Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), as part of the National Chocolate Day celebration last Friday, gifted Happy 98.9FM with lots of Made- In-Ghana Cocoa based goodies to mark the day.
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The gifts, which were brought in during Friday’s edition of the Happy Morning Show, included a chocolate cake and a hamper filled with Ghana’s quality Golden Tree products such as chocolate bars, chocolate spread, chocolate drink and many other local cocoa based products.
Led by the CEO of the Authority; Mr. Akwasi Agyeman, the visit was not to only Happy fm but other media houses and corporate bodies as a means to promote Ghana chocolate and Made in Ghana products.
Valentine’s Day, which is widely celebrated on the 14th of February every year, is observed in Ghana as the National Chocolate Day and the theme for this year’s celebration was ‘My Chocolate Experience: My Holistic Well-being.
This initiative was introduced in 2005 by a Former Minister of Tourism, the late Jake Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey as a way of boosting the domestic consumption of Made-in-Ghana chocolate and other cocoa-based products, promote domestic tourism as and enhance companies in Ghana’s cocoa industry such as the Cocoa Processing Company, Ghana Cocoa Board and others.
Eventhough Ghana and Ivory coast produce about 60% of the worlds cocoa , the two countries benefit only about 5% of the global chocolate market estimated at $100billion.
Initiatives such as this are aimed at increasing consumption to attract the right investment and technology into the industry for enhanced production and employment. With the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) in place, if implemented well, chocolate producing companies will not only focus on Ghana’s 30 million population but can tap into West Africa’s 350million population and Africa’s 1.2billion population.