Cocoa Merchants Ghana Limited, a licensed buying company (LBC), has positioned itself better to intensify its support package to farmers to enable them to boost production, following its admission as a member of the World Cocoa Foundation this year, the Managing Director of the company, Nana Amo Adade Boamah, has said.
He also said the admission of the company to the foundation had given it international recognition, which would result in improved support packages to farmers in areas such as supply of agro-chemicals and training of farmers in better farming practices.
Speaking at an annual national review meeting of managers of the company at Akyawkyom, near Ejisu in the Ashanti Region, Nana Boamah said empowering farmers to work at ensuring a sustainable cocoa economy was crucial in advancing the development of the country.
He said once the cocoa industry would continue to be a major player in national economic development, it behoved players in the industry to play their roles well. The World Cocoa Foundation is an organisation with over 90 members in the world. Membership is based on a company�s ability to empower cocoa farmers through holistic partnership-driven programmes focused on farm-level training and applied research.
Cocoa Merchants is the first African company to be admitted to the foundation. Nana Boamah challenged cocoa farmers to stick to the application of COCOBOD-approved agrochemicals on their farms. He noted that in spite of the supply of agro-chemicals to farmers and other support services not much would be achieved, if the approved chemicals were not applied on the farms.
He said the company currently operated in 78 districts in the cocoa-producing regions in Ghana. Since its inception in 1998, the company has progressively improved upon its performance and has a current market share of about 4.8 per cent.
Nana Boamah commended cocoa farmers for their contribution to the sustenance of the company. The MD called on COCOBOD to ensure the early release of money to the LBCs for the purchase of cocoa.
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