Government of Ghana estimates $2.8 billion revenue from the production of coconut by 2021

This, the government says will be achievable only if efforts to improve production, processing and exportation of the crop are successful.

The Director of Public Relations of Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA), Ruth Maafo said this while unveiling some Ambassadors for a coconut festival campaign in Ghana.

As part of the government's effort to promote other cash crops in its Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD), GEPA and the African Coconut Group are organising a maiden International Coconut Festival to bring to bear some of the hidden benefits of coconut and how Ghana can earn foreign exchange from it.

The programme which is scheduled to take place between the 24th and 26th of September this year will bring together stakeholders in the coconut industry across the globe to connect to Ghanaian farmers to make them globally competitive and have value for their produce.

Ruth Maafo explained that “The festival gives us a platform to interact more to network along the value chain and once we know more about what you can derive from coconut, people are going to develop other means of revenue streams that if they were doing it on a small scale, they wouldn’t have gotten.”

She added that the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement will also be a major boost for exporting the crop across the borders of Ghana.

“Coconut is regarded as tropical fruit and once the agreement is in place, and we’ll be able to go through other countries without barriers, then, of course, it is another opportunity for us to sell as much as we want, so it’s just another area for us to promote the crop,” she said.