As part of the activities celebrating this year’s 2022 Cocoa Day, a four-day exhibition was opened in Suhum to create a platform for the stakeholders to showcase their various products to the people in the municipality and the entire Eastern Region.
Speaking on the theme, “COCOBOD @ 75; Sustaining our Environment, Wealth and Health” the Honourable Eastern Regional Minister, Mr. Seth Kwame Acheampong bemoaned the proliferation of illegal mining activities in cocoa-growing communities in the region in recent times and described the issue as a major setback to the cocoa industry.
He said the activities of illegal miners in cocoa farms do not only affect the environment and water bodies but also the health and the livelihood of the people in the area thereby impacting negatively on the socio-economic fabric of the affected communities.
He expressed concern about the recent series of reports where cocoa farms were being sold to illegal foreign miners for huge sums of money. This, he added, destroys farmlands with grown cocoa trees and beautiful landscapes with healthy trees becoming a maze of ditches, and deathtraps and consequently denying the indigenes from taking up farming activities, a major source of their livelihoods.
Hon. Acheampong reassured that government would continue to fight this menace and implement policies and programmes to improve the socio-economic well-being of farmers in the country; adding that the introduction of a pension scheme for cocoa farmers instituted by the government for the first time in the country’s history was one of the plans geared towards sustaining the growth in the cocoa sector.
The Deputy Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD in charge of Finance and Administration, Mr. Ray Ankrah also expressed concerns about the effect of illegal mining on cocoa production and the recent agitation by global consumers, the European Union, trading partners, and global civil society organizations, for more environmentally friendly and sustainable farming practices.
Mr. Ankrah encouraged the public to consume cocoa for good health noting that research findings had shown that the cocoa bean contains essential minerals, fat, proteins, and antioxidants which help to cure or prevent cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, insomnia, bodily pains as well as delay in the aging process.
He, therefore, called on Ghanaians to make cocoa consumption part of their daily diets by serving cocoa drinks at homes, naming ceremonies, weddings, parties, funerals, state functions, and other social gatherings.
The exhibition brought together Agro-input dealers, chocolate/cocoa products, Licensed Buying Companies, Financial Institutions, insurance companies, and NGOs in the cocoa sector.