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Chocolate imports cost $ 45 million, CPC is better positioned as an alternative
As the world's second largest cocoa producer, Ghana spends an average of USD 45 million (EUR 216 million) a year to import chocolate and other cocoa products for special occasions such as Christmas and Valentine's Day.
Imports are mainly in the last quarter of the year, strategically to cope with the increased demand for Christmas and New Year celebrations in December and January respectively, some being reserved for baskets to mark the holiday season. On Valentine's Day February 14, the general manager of Cocoa Processing Company (CPC) Limited, Nana Agyenim Boateng I, said in an interview.
Nana Boateng, I told GRAPHIC BUSINESS on February 8 that imports were mainly aimed at satisfying the country's strong appetite for foreign chocolates, fueled largely by an apparent lack of local substitutes.
He added that CPC, in operation since 1965, had stumbled upon data on strong appetite for imported chocolate during a market study that had preceded the introduction of its latest range of artisbad chocolates in December. latest.
It's doable
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Considered as a way to announce its return to the cocoa processing sector after overcoming operational difficulties in recent times, CPC's new products are a direct response to the increasing imports of chocolate and cocoa. derived from cocoa by a country producing the desired cocoa bean.
If successful, the products could help reduce the import gap, thus saving the economy, particularly the cedi, from foreign exchange outflows to finance these imports.
Nana Boateng I said the challenge now was to make sure that the consumer, who was used to foreign products, understands that what non-cocoa-producing countries could do, Ghana, through CPC, could do better. .
"We are now targeting supermarkets and department stores so that the consumer can distinguish between our products and other imported products.
"So, if it's almonds, nuts, pistachios and macadamias, which they consider to be something extraordinary, then the CPC challenges itself by saying that it's feasible." , did he declare.
He explained that the introduction of new products, which come in different flavors, was part of a strategy to revitalize society and use it to further crush Ghana's cocoa beans.
The CPC has two plants with a total capacity of 64,500 tons of cocoa beans each year.
The flavours
Nana Boateng I has focused the success of the company's innovation on consumer knowledge, explaining that the board and management of the company were optimistic that "that CPC will receive more overtime After consumers have tasted both products.
CPC's range of handcrafted chocolates includes caramel-rich milk chocolate, dark chocolate with ginger, milk chocolate with cocoa chips, dark chocolate with mint and strawberry white chocolate.
The rest consists of a mixture of white and Irish milk with Irish cream, white chocolate with cocoa nibs, milk chocolate with coffee and peanut milk chocolate.
Impact on the economy
Although Africa produces nearly 75% of global cocoa production, it accounts for only 5% of the $ 100 billion of the chocolate industry, according to the African Development Bank (ADB).
Switzerland and Belgium, the two largest chocolate producers in the world, would receive about US $ 14 billion and US $ 12 billion annually.
Nana Boateng said that it was worrying that Ghana was losing artisbad chocolate, which creates "huge revenue for other countries".
If CPC was successful in turning consumers' appetite for chocolate of foreign origin into a locally produced product, he stated that "the net benefit is that this money, cedis, would have been exchanged and would have had a negative impact on the local currency to import these imports. , will be used for other things. "
"In addition, there will be a job," he said.
He explained that beyond those employed to work in the factory, the new products had created an additional business sector for suppliers across the country.
Domestic treatment
Ghana has about seven large cocoa grinders, with a combined capacity of about 500 000 tonnes per year, or more than 50% of the country's annual cocoa production, averaging 850 000 tonnes.
Until 2017/2018, when domestic processing reached 34%, less than 20% was processed locally.
At present, the government seeks to process 50% of annual output as part of a strategy that is to increase industry revenue through value creation and export of products finished or semi-finished.
Joseph Boahen Aidoo, President of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), said in a previous interview that, as part of the strategy, the board was supporting cocoa grinders to get contract beans to process and to refund with the product.
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