Ghana threatened to lose rank of world number two in cocoa

Audio 01:49

Cocoa beans in a warehouse in the village of Atroni, Ghana, April 11, 2019. REUTERS / Ange Aboa

By: Claire Fages Follow

5 mins

Ghana is the second largest cocoa producer in the world behind Côte d'Ivoire.

But the West African country could lose this rank, say planters in eastern Ghana.

They see their cocoa trees disappear in favor of mining.

Publicity

Is Ghana in danger of losing its rank of world number two in cocoa?

This is what

the president of the Union of producers of the district of New Juaben, in the east of the country,

told the

newspaper

.

With bitterness, these planters observe that the land, which does not belong to them, is more and more frequently sold " 

 ", they deplore, by the customary chiefs to private investors.

Trees cut without compensation

Trees are cut to make way for mining, often illegal, for sand extraction, or for other agricultural products such as coconut, which is used for cosmetics.

Just over 1,200 hectares of cocoa trees have reportedly disappeared.

For the moment this is above all endangering the income of the evacuated planters, they continue to demand compensation.

From there to threatening Ghanaian cocoa production, there is a big step forward.

But Ghanaian production is on the rise despite the "

Cocoa occupies 1.9 million hectares in Ghana, and for the time being, it is above all the "swollen shoot" virus which endangers the plantations, one sixth of the surface areas would be contaminated, hence the organized uprooting. by the Ghanaian cocoa office, Cocobod, against, most often, new plants and compensation for producers.

Far ahead of Ecuador

The Ghanaian harvest should even increase by nearly 6%, according to Cocobod, by October 2021. Even if it fell below 900,000 tonnes during the penultimate season, it remains nearly three times greater than that of the world's third largest bean producer, Ecuador.

Ghana therefore has a very large margin before losing the second place it holds, behind Côte d'Ivoire.

Despite everything, the chocolate industry is worried about these evacuations of producers in eastern Ghana.

A representative of the American company Mondelez pointed out that it was a question of the “

 ”

problem 

of land rights in West Africa.

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