Ghana gets only $2 billion revenue from $100 billion cocoa industry despite producing 20% of the world’s cocoa beans

• But it receives on $2 billion revenue from $100 billion cocoa industry.

• The revenue from cocoa for the two countries does not even add up to $6 billion.

• The Standard Group wants to assist the continent to generate more revenue from producing cocoa.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Mr Joseph Boahen Aidoo has disclosed that despite producing about 20% of the world’s total cocoa beans, Ghana gets only $2 billion in terms of revenue from the $100 billion cocoa industry.

According to him, this is due to the inability of the country to add value to its cocoa beans, as about 80 per cent of the cocoa produced is exported in its raw form.

“Ghana is the second leading producer of cocoa as we account for roughly 20% of the world cocoa production but the income we get from the entire cocoa value chain which involves production, processing and manufacturing of chocolates is just $2 billion,” he said.

Mr Boahen Aidoo made the revelation when some executive members of the Standard Group visited COCOBOD.

He said, “Together with Cote d'Ivoire, we produce about three million tonnes of cocoa beans which translate into about 60 per cent of the world’s cocoa but the revenue generated from the sale of cocoa for the two countries doesn’t even add up to $6 billion, and this is sad.”

Mr Aidoo also indicated that the farmers in Ghana who were the anchor around which the industry revolved got less than three per cent of the US$100 billion.

“The farmers in Ghana who are producing about three bags per acre and are the anchor in the entire cocoa value chain get about only 3 percent of this amount,” he stated, adding that, “We are talking about 800,000 farm households and in effect we have about 1.2 million farmers involved and most of them are smallholder farmers operating about 2.5 hectares.”

The Head of the delegation from the Standard Bank Group, Mr Steve Hall, however, assured COCOBOD that the purpose of their visit was part of the bank’s efforts to drive economic growth in Africa especially with matters relating to cocoa production in the sub-region.

“We are also here as an executive team to learn about how we can play our role in making this our home and be able to drive the growth of Africa,” he said.