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Val’s Day to be Chocolate Day in Ghana
Accra, Jan 9, GNA – Beginning this year, Valentine’s Day,
February 14, would be Ghana’s National Chocolate Day,
Tourism and Diasporan Relations Minister, Jake Otanka
Obetsebi-Lamptey announced on Tuesday.
He told journalists that in the same manner as some media
and marketing organizations had helped to firmly place the
day on the Ghanaian calendar, they would be expected to
champion the campaign to turn the day into chocolate day.
Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey, who is the brain behind the institution
of the day, made the announcement at a media launch of the
day, saying that it would be a major part of the Ghana@50
celebrations.
He said as part of the celebration of the day, a cocoa
museum shall be established on Tetteh Quarshie’s Cocoa farm
at Mampong, where two of the original cocoa trees he planted
were located.
Tourists would also be taken through the various stages of
cocoa planting, harvesting and processing at the Cocoa
Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) at Bonsu in the Eastern
Region.
Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey said so far the various companies that
produced cocoa products in the country had pledged their
commitment to help to make the day a reality.
“What is left is for the media and marketing companies to
come up with creative initiatives to ensure that Ghanaians
make use of more chocolate products as gifts to their loved
ones on February 14,” he said.
He acknowledged that “we at the Ministry do not have the
capacity to lead such a campaign but we trust in the media
to do it effectively”.
Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey said the Ministry, in collaboration with
its implementation arm, the Ghana Tourist Board (GTB), would
evolve policies that would compel all local and foreign
restaurants across the country to put Ghanaian dishes and
chocolate based deserts on their menu.
Asked if the move to compel restaurants in that manner would
not create problems, he said it would be made a matter of
policy, of which all the stakeholders, including the
operators of restaurants and the Ghana Chefs Association
would make an input.
Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey said he was worried that some players in
the international community erroneously accused Ghana of
engaging children in unlawful labour on large cocoa
plantations, saying that “we do not even have large
plantations in Ghana and so we could not have been guilty of
child labour”.
He explained that about 90 per cent of Ghanaian cocoa farms
were small family holding and, therefore, children who
worked on those farms did so as after school household
chores and not as paid jobs.
Major Courage Quashigah, Minister of Health, noted that
though cocoa and its products enjoyed great popularity
around the world, Ghana, which could be described as the
home of cocoa, had a very low cocoa consumption rate.
He expressed the hope that the institution of the day would
be the final onslaught to inculcate the consumption of cocoa
and chocolate products among Ghanaians.
Maj. Quashigah said Ghanaian
chocolate products, which were darker, bitter with more
cocoa mass, had been found to contain more calcium and
magnesium, helped the artery and general vascular elasticity
and, therefore, promoted more efficient blood circulation.
He urged Ghanaians to make it a habit to drink chocolate
beverages every morning instead of tea and also to eat a bar
of Ghana made chocolate after meals to prevent the acid
content of food residue in their months from destroying
their teeth and gum.
Mr Tony Fofie, Deputy Managing Director of COCOBOD, praised
Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey for his initiative, saying that in the
same manner as Germans had a beer festival, the French had a
wine festival and even Europe as a continent celebrated a
chocolate day, it was about time Ghana, the second largest
cocoa producer in the world to have a National Chocolate
Day.
GNA
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