TEMA, Ghana, 4th July: The Secretary General of the Ghana Federation of Labour (GFL), Abraham Koomson, has called on the government to revive the Cocoa Processing Company (CPC), arguing that adding value to Ghana’s cocoa will create jobs, increase revenue, and strengthen the country’s position in the global cocoa industry.
According to him, Ghana should move beyond exporting raw cocoa beans and instead focus on processing its cocoa into finished and semi-finished products for both local consumption and export.
Speaking on Ahotor FM’s Yepe Ahunu programme, Mr. Koomson said Ghana’s first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, envisioned such a strategy when he established the large cocoa storage silos in Tema.
He explained that the silos were intended to store cocoa beans until favourable prices were available on the international market, rather than forcing the country to sell at low prices.
He stressed that reviving the Cocoa Processing Company (CPC) would not only generate thousands of jobs but also enable Ghana to process and store its cocoa whenever global market prices are unfavourable. This, he said, would give the country greater bargaining power while protecting the incomes of cocoa farmers.
Mr. Koomson noted that Ghanaian farmers endure enormous hardship in producing cocoa, yet the country continues to export the raw commodity, allowing other nations to process it and earn significantly higher profits.
He described this as an unfair arrangement that Ghana must work to change.
He therefore urged the government to adopt a well-planned strategy that integrates the Tema cocoa silos with a revitalised Cocoa Processing Company.
Such an approach, he said, would allow Ghana to store cocoa beans when prices are low and process them into products such as chocolate, cocoa butter, cocoa powder, cocoa liquor, Pebbles and other value-added cocoa products, similar to the role the company played in its earlier years before becoming dormant.
Story by: Emmanuel Romeo Tetteh(#RomeoWrites✍️)/ Presidential Affairs Correspondent | Ghana 🇬🇭