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Kufuor asks ECOWAS
for a common front in fight against cocoa disease
Tema, Aug. 19, Ghanadot/GNA – President John Agyekum Kufuor on
Tuesday called for an ECOWAS initiative to combat the
swollen shoot virus disease, a major threat to the
sub-region’s cocoa industry.
Inaugurating a GHC 23.7 million Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD)
Dzata Bu Warehouse Complex in Tema, he noted that the
disease was a problem haunting not only Ghana but the other
cocoa producing nations in the West African sub-region.
In the meantime, President Kufuor has directed COCOBOD to
intensify its programme to contain it in the country.
The complex comprising of five warehousing blocks with a
total capacity for the storage of 50,000 tonnes of cocoa and
equipped with weighbridges, conveyor belts and forklifts,
the facility was built by COCOBOD to help end the seasonal
congestion at the ports, where articulated trucks carrying
cocoa litter the streets at the “Take-Over-Centres” causing
embarrassment to both the Board and Government.
It also has office accommodation for the Quality Control
Division of the Board, Cocoa Marking Company Limited and the
Licensed Buying Companies as well as canteen and sanitary
systems.
A similar complex with a storage capacity for 100,000 tonnes
and estimated to cost 65 million dollars has been programmed
to be constructed at Kajebril in the Ahanta West District of
the Western Region.
President Kufuor said work on this would begin next month.
With such modernization, the Government was expecting high
level of efficiency and accountability.
He announced that 100 selected cocoa and sheanut communities
had been earmarked for supply of good drinking water through
the provision of solar-powered pumps within the next two
months.
Out of this, the Western region would have 30, Ashanti, 15,
Brong-Ahafo, Eastern, Central and the Northern regions, 10
each, with the rest, Volta, Upper East and Upper West,
benefiting from five each.
In addition, President Kufuor said there was going to be the
installation of solar street lights in 350-400 other cocoa
communities in deprived areas.
Both projects would be implemented on pilot basis and would
be replicated in subsequent years.
He re-affirmed the Government’s support for the various
policy interventions of the COCOBOD aimed at sustaining
continued growth of the country’s cocoa industry, mentioning
among these improvements in payment of remuneration to
farmers, bi-annual bonus payments, nationwide pest and
disease control and cocoa high-tech practices.
Professor George Gyan Baffour, Deputy Minister of Finance,
asked the Board to ensure that post-harvest losses were
reduced to the minimum.
Additionally, operations in the warehouse should be properly
managed to ensure best book-keeping practices and
efficiency.
Mr Isaac Osei, Chief Executive Officer of the COCOBOD, gave
assurance of their determination to sustain the enviable
quality of the country’s cocoa.
To this end, a new Quality Control Office and a
state-of-the-art laboratory equipped to carry out on site
real tests would be built on the premise of the Dzata Bu
Warehouse.
This, he said, would enable the Board to adhere to new
international regulations especially those on maximum
residue limits of chemicals in cocoa beans.
GNA
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