The Chinese Cocoa

E. Ablorh-Odjidja

April 26, 2021

The news came that the Chinese have sold their first bags of cocoa to Belgium. And the reaction from our officials has so far been tepid.

We are asked not to worry by our experts.  So have government officials who have become onlookers while they respond to this new threat to the cocoa trade with observations and reasonings taken verbatim from fictitious school textbooks.   

No visceral response from any of these officials.  But there must be one.  That the Chinese have moved into an industry that has been the backbone of the Ghanaian economy for decades must feel like a slap in the face for the average Ghanaian.

We were sold on the benevolence of the Chinese system.  But stealing our cocoa seedlings to China is not a caring act.  This venture into cocoa production must show the Chinese character as dangerous, exploitative, and uncaring.  

Yet, in the face of this act, our officials show no outrage.  But note this; nations that have no sense of outrage for the tragic do perish.

As a people, the Chinese are very much aware of tragedy when it happens to them; know how to shield themselves from its ills.  But more importantly, they know when to forage for the good things that others have, and the extent to which they can go to exploit their innocence; most of the time ruthlessly.  

While our President was busy threatening Switzerland, about withholding cocoa exports and bragging about the potential for domestic industrial uses, the Chinese were busy preparing to pull the cocoa industry rug from under us.

Thus clandestinely, cocoa seedlings have shown up in China several years back.  The trees have grown, yielded fruits and the results have shown up in Belgium; China’s first bags of cocoa beans produced sold.

Back home in Ghana, hordes of Chinese citizens have settled, engaging in all kinds of trade and industries. 

They are the kingpins of the Galamsey gold mining system,  that is presently destroying cocoa plantations, polluting streams and rivers, and poisoning the soil in Ghana.

Combine these acts with the new Chinese venture into the cocoa trade and think whether the deeds are those from the helping hand that was promised.

An industrial giant like China in the cocoa  trade represent ominous competition.  Yet, our officials and experts are unmoved.  They insist that Chinese cocoa production cannot be a threat. 

And they get very philosophical, yet they have not delved fully into the study of the Chinese character and how things operate in the natural world.

The truth is for some reason these Ghanaian officials would rather not want the Chinese to hear our righteous anger.

But our outrage must be expected and expressed.  We are alive, not dead and we should respond when poked or provoked.  The rest of Africa and the cocoa-producing regions of the world must back Ghana to make China fear our outrage.

Instead, the Ghana Cocoa Board is busy tamping the outrage down.  There “is no need to panic... we have to assess what the Chinese are doing,” they said.

And our Minister of Food and Agriculture offers a neat assurance, that ” You cannot substitute the flavor of our cocoa with any cocoa anywhere in the world. This the country is not ready to surrender to any country,” he stated.

And from the Minister of Finance came the assurance that “China growing cocoa can only help to achieve what isn’t there today… it will significantly grow Chinese taste for cocoa then Ghana can be a very big winner.”

The Minister of Agriculture proposed the native “flavor” defense theory because the Chinese could not cross that final line.  How ridiculous, but wait till after you’ve plumbed

the depth of our Finance Minister’s response.

Both the ministers of Agriculture and Finance have underestimated the Chinese natural ability for marketing, regardless of the limitations of taste and geography.  All they had to do was to count the number of Chinese restaurants in Accra alone and they wouldn’t be this deluded. 

The Chinese never play games.  If "flavor" is the only barrier to the top, as stated by our Minister of Agriculture, be certain they already know what to to do overcome this barrier.  

It may be true that Starbuck is benefitting from coffee sales in China now.  But caution.  Against China, the gains for adversaries have always been temporary.  

Most Chinese citizen utilize what China produces.  If a Chinese Starbuck comes along tomorrow, the American Starbuck will be gone.

China uses market and population size to entrap.  But once it gains a hold on that industry, it is game over for the foreign operator.  Our Ministry of Finance should wonder how some entrepreneurs from America have faired in the China sector, since they rushed into that territoty in the 90s.

African Eye reported with apprehension that, “Although China currently does not appear in the 45 top cocoa-producing countries in the world, many experts have opined that its full entry into the cocoa export space is a potential threat to the fortunes of the two biggest cocoa-producing countries, Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana.”

The Chinese probably took away our best seedlings anyway and bribed or hired away our best agricultural hands.  Be certain that their exports will grow at our expense.

Another factor that tilts the advantage in China’s favor is that they are masters at manipulating technology.

They already appear to be ahead in the cocoa harvesting and processing stage. 

For almost a century, we have depended on crude manpower to manipulate our drying seasons. The Chinese have come out with a new technology for cheating the weather - rolling flat drying platforms for help within a couple of years.

Where were the minds at the Cocoa Board on technology for all the time the Chinese were planning and plotting to make marvelous fools of us?

A lesson from the oil palm industry is relevant.  

“The oil palm was first introduced to Southeast Asia in 1848, when four seedlings, originating from West Africa, were planted in the botanical gardens at Buitenzorg,” says History of Palm Oil - Coconut Oil

The top producers of palm oil now are Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Colombia.  Nigeria, the top producer in 1961, has dropped to the 5^th position.

This lesson should be a warning to the cocoa industry in Ghana and a lesson for our government.   The Chinese government, faced with similar circumstances, would not allow any country to steal its natural resource.

The Chinese knew that gold cannot be regrown in China so they came to Ghana to extract it recklessly.  And with that, they have put our farms and ecosystems in danger.  

Fortunately for them, cocoa could grow in China.  They have poisoned our rivers, clawed back maximum profits from our indebtedness from loans, and now they are busy grafting our cocoa trees in China, ready to displace us as a top producer of cocoa.

The intention is clear.  They are not out to help anybody.  They are here in Ghana to exploit and destroy.  A serious trust in China is not a good platform on which to build our prosperity.

But our officials are still clueless. 

E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Publisher www.ghanadot.com, Washington, DC, April 26, 2021.

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