Ghana Cocoa Board has begun processes to sign $1.5 billion syndication loan for the 2021/2022 cropping season. This is $0.2 billion higher than the $1.3 billion loan contracted the previous season. This means that COCOBOD loans will go up by 15.4 percent next season to enable the purchase of cocoa beans.
Chief Executive of COCOBOD, Joseph Boahen Aidoo hinted that discussions are underway with banks to get the process on course by the end of the current crop season. According to him, COCOBOD will secure the loan by next month.
“Very soon, we will sign the syndication for the next crop season. I must say we have made arrangements to get the banks on board to chart this path”.
Joseph Boahen Aidoo
Speaking at the Olam Managers Conference, Mr. Boahen Aidoo expressed optimism that the 2021/2022 season will be brighter. This, according to him, informed the BOD’s decision to started the process early enough.
Furthermore, the CEO indicated that the last syndicated loan of $1.3 billion was not adequate. This was mainly the result of the load of work on the production process.
Ghana produced over 1.1m metric tonnes of cocoa beans
Meanwhile, Mr. Boahen-Aidoo pointed out that Ghana recorded more than 1.1 million metric tonnes of cocoa beans in the 2020/21 crop season. This is about 45% increase over the 2019/2020 production. Moreover, it beats the earlier record of about one million metric tonnes achieved in the 2009/2010 crop season.
The Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Cocoa Board, Joseph Boahen Aidoo, praised the government’s policies and programs for the feat achieved. Some of the programs include the cocoa cultivation under the irrigation system and hand pollination. COCOBOD also implemented the rehabilitation of age and diseased-infected farms.
“We have exceeded our production target for the year and the money we took as loan didn’t take us anywhere. Very soon, we will sign the syndication for the next crop season and I must say we have made arrangements to get the banks on board to chart this path”.
Joseph Boahen Aidoo
Reports say due to the bumper harvest this year, some of the Licensed Buying Cocoa Companies exhausted their seed fund. This is a-COCOBOD fund for the purchases of cocoa beans.
The Living Income Differential, which has raised income of cocoa farmers, is one of the motivation factors. This performance, coupled with favorable world market prices, will boost exports.
Meanwhile, COCOBOD earlier forecast 900,000 tonnes of cocoa beans production for this crop season. If the current momentum is sustained, then the next cropping season may bring something even higher. Ghana is the second largest cocoa producer in the world, behind neighbors, Ivory Coast. Together, the two West African countries control about 70% of the world’s cocoa market.
The COCOBOD CEO also used the opportunity to show appreciation to Olam for its support in ensuring that his outfit exceeded its one million tonnes production target. Also, he applauded Olam for advancing payment to farmers ahead of the government funding.
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