Eric Opoku, the Minister-designate for Food and Agriculture has revealed Ghana’s cocoa production has declined to its lowest in 20 years.
According to Eric Opoku the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), cited during the transition indicated that their production was 530 metric tonnes.
He detailed that Ghana’s drop in cocoa production has a serious financial implication regarding Ghana’s cocoa loan commitments.
Speaking at the appointment committee vetting committee on Monday, January 20, Eric Opoku, detailed, “Just recently during the transition engagement, COCOBOD submitted a list to us. In that document, they indicated that their production was 530 metric tonnes. In this case, both of you are right. But being it 430 or 530 metric tonnes, both are right. But production has declined and that is the lowest in the last two decades”.
Eric Opoku revealed that Ghana was unable to meet the target of 850,000 tonnes of cocoa after taking a syndicated loan of $800 million leading to a default on the loan.
The minister-designate detailed, “On the issues of default, Ghana went to the syndicated market and took a loan of $800 million to purchase 850,000 tonnes of cocoa. At the end of the season, we were unable to produce to meet 850,000 tonnes. We defaulted on the loans”.
“They decided to roll over that delivery to this year. The quantity is 374,000 tonnes. This is the figure they gave us during the transition. Now that we have assumed office, we have to look at how to deal with this debt and many other debts in the sector before we can make progress”, he added.
