Dr Enoch Acheampong, a Senior Lecturer at KNUST has revealed that China has become a threat to Ghana’s cocoa production and may kill the cocoa business in the years ahead.
Speaking to Kwesi Parker Wilson on Oyerepa Breakfast Time, he explained that China has started producing cocoa and they are the same country that distributes fertilizers and agrochemicals to Ghana and other African countries’ for cocoa production.
There is therefore a high tendency of killing African cocoa production through the chemicals they bring to farmers.
He supported his claim by testifying that there was little to cocoa production in the country this year stating that, “It is very scary”.
Ghana is the second-leading world cocoa producer. Between 2019 and 2020, around 19,000-20,000ha of cocoa farms across the country were destroyed by illegal miners, according to a Cocobod report. Gold miners targeted major cocoa-growing towns in Ashanti, Eastern, Western and Western North regions.
In the 2020/2021 crop season, the country recorded an estimated 1.1 million metric tons in cocoa beans production.
The 2021/22 season reported a decline to reach a 12-year low at 689,000 tons.
For this reason, Dr Acheampong has alerted us that the cocoa industry is under threat and should thus be given attention.
