The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) says the Cocoa Management System to aid in the traceability bid of all Ghanaian cocoa produce that enters the international market will soon be implemented.
This Cocoa Farmers database according to COCOBOD will play a significant role to identify and address the question or challenge of every cocoa and where it is produced.
The European Union (EU) has passed a new law that seeks to ban the import of commodities linked to deforestation.
The EU Due Diligence Law demands that products such as cocoa, coffee, soy, and beef, among others, meet a litany of requirements in order to enter the European Union market.
Speaking with Accra-based TV3 Ghana, the Head of Public Affairs of COCOBOD, Fiifi Boafo indicated that the Cocoa Management System to aid in traceability is to help prevent a breach of the EU Law.
He emphasized that it is also to ban commodities linked to deforestation and to heighten the interest in Ghana’s Cocoa on the international market.
“So, let me say that going forward, when this is fully implemented, from the farm gate to the port of shipment, we can tell where every cocoa was produced and by so doing, takes away every challenge or every question as to where the cocoa was produced,” he continued.
“The idea is that by October this year, we can do 100% traceability of Cocoa produced in Ghana. And this is how we are able to answer the questions which the regulation is expecting of us’ he added.
Fiifi Boafo admits that some farmers are destroying and operating in forest reserves to plant cocoa but COCOBOD is working hard to mitigate such practices through sensitization programs, education, and sanctions, among others.
“We are also ensuring that the productivity enhancement programs we are rolling out will also help them to be able to improve their productivity and the appetite for them to go into the forest would not also be there.”
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Source: Eric Eshun/ATLFMNEWS
