Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Cocoa Board, Joseph Boahen Aidoo, has hailed the government’s performance on improving cocoa production in Ghana since the assumption of office in 2018.
Addressing the media earlier today during a presser to update Ghanaians on the achievements chalked by COCOBOD under the Akufo-Addo led government, Mr. Boahen Aidoo disclosed that the situation they met in 2017 in the cocoa industry was dire.
Describing the grim picture NPP government met in 2017, Mr. Aidoo revealed close to about 20% of the productive cocoa areas in Ghana, had been affected by the swollen shoot virus disease which threatened cocoa productivity in Ghana. “We inherited an aggravated form of cocoa swollen shoot virus diseases situation in the country, putting the productivity of farms in the future and sustainability of the industry into jeopardy”, the CEO of COCOBOD intimated.
Over 200, 000 hectares of cocoa farms in the Western North Region – an area well known to produce about one third of Ghana’s national cocoa output, were said to have been lost to the swollen shoot virus disease. Productivity waned as a result. The problem was further compounded by plummeting world market price for cocoa which fell from around $3,000 to $2,000 in 2016.
The impact of the situation that prevailed was that many cocoa farmers had literally lost hope cocoa farming. As Mr. Aidoo puts it, “…swathes of cocoa farms were being converted into cashew farms in the Bono and Eastern Regions of Ghana”. Illegal mining later worsened the woes of production output.
“It was a very stormy and sticky situation, indeed”, the COCOBOD Boss intoned when painting a picture of the situation they inherited.
“Under the able leadership of President Akufo-Addo, ably supported by the vice president, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the inspirational and progressive government of the New Patriotic Party and the forward looking current crop of COCOBOD board and management as well as staff, who are well equipped with innovation have reversed the situation and turned the industry around from retrogression to transformation” he shared emphasizing the transformation the industry has witnessed since the NPP assume the reigns as government.
According to him, the narrative of the Ghana Cocobod has been a journey of numerous initiatives, incredible innovations and landmark achievements in the face of the stormy and sticky situation the Akufo-Addo led government inherited in 2017.
Sefah-Danquah.