Accra, Nov 8 - Ghana will boost cocoa processing capacity by 100,000 tonnes a year to at least 350,000 tonnes by the end of 2008, the head of industry regulator Cocobod said on Thursday.
Cocobod Chief Executive Isaac Osei said new investments by U.S.-based agribusiness giant Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) would help Ghana process more of its rising cocoa output locally.
"We are getting closer to realising our twin vision of producing more cocoa and processing more than 40 percent of it," Osei told Reuters.
"By the end of 2008 we should have an installed capacity for 350,000 tonnes." Cocobod officials previously suggested grinding capacity would rise to about 300,000 tonnes in 2008.
Ghana processes up to 250,000 tonnes from a cocoa crop which has averaged 670,000 tonnes over the past four years.
Osei said the new plants would increase employment in the sector and help boost Ghana's international trade.
Cargill is building a $70 million plant at a tax haven in the eastern port of Tema, with initial capacity to process 65,000 tonnes of cocoa annually into liquor, butter and powder. It has the potential to rise to 120,000 tonnes.
ADM has signed a five-year supply agreement with Cocobod for its plant, being built in Ghana's second-largest city of Kumasi. Cocobod officials said ADM initially requested 30,000 tonnes a year in supplies.
Both factories are expected to be fully operational in 2008.
"We are on target and will be running next year," Jack Sinclair, ADM general manager in Ghana, told Reuters.
EYEING FOREIGN TRADE
Ghana is the second-largest supplier of cocoa to the United States, which in 2005 imported $1.4 billion of cocoa products. Osei said Cocobod aimed to maximise Ghana's returns by diversifying its export markets and investing more abroad. "We have to look for opportunities for investment elsewhere and have a stake in what goes on in the world at large."
Cuba, Turkey, China and Kyrgyzstan have shown interest in commercial ties, especially investment in the tertiary sector where cocoa is converted into powder and chocolate products.
Cuba, which produces about 200,000 tonnes of high quality beans, has requested to import about 25,000 tonnes. A Cocobod source said Ghana would consider the request.
Cocobod, the sole purchaser of cocoa beans in Ghana, expects a 2007-08 harvest of at least 650,000 tonnes. It has outlined plans to raise output to 1 million tonnes by 2010 by improving fertilization and disease control.
Since 2003, Ghana has seen increased interest in processing, sparked by policy initiatives, improving economic conditions, and civil war in neighbouring Ivory Coast, the world's No. 1 producer.
Privatised Cocoa Processing Company, which grinds 30,000 tonnes of cocoa, is set to raise throughput to 65,000 tonnes next year. Afrotropic Cocoa processor, which started with 15,000 tonnes, says its capacity would increase to 45,000 tonnes by October 2008.
CALF Cocoa, a 10,000-tonne Chinese-Ghanaian plant completed more than five years ago, has yet to start production due to lack of funds to purchase beans, directors told Reuters.