Branded Chocolates Insult To Cocoa Farmers – NDC MP

Member of Parliament for Juaboso in the Western Region, Kwabena Minkah Akandoh, has condemned the Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD, Joseph Boahen Aidoo, for branding some 900 pieces of chocolate with his picture.

Mr Aidoo did the branding to celebrate his 60th birthday.

Although it has emerged Mr Aidoo paid GHS2,940 for the branding without any cost to COCOBOD, Mr Akandoh believes the move was unnecessary and could have been avoided.

Speaking on the Executive Breakfast Show (EBS) on Class91.3FM on Tuesday, 9 January 2018, the lawmaker said: “I don’t understand why the NPP will always get themselves in this mess – and avoidable ones of course. Sometimes their responses are even worse, I do not know and I cannot imagine and not understand why they do that to themselves. You go and brand chocolate with your picture and somebody tells us the man did that with his money. Is it the first time he’s celebrating his birthday…?

“Is he branding chocolate because he’s the CEO today? We deserve better than what they are doing at the moment. How many cocoa trees has he got, how many cocoa plants has he planted in this country? He thinks that because the president has appointed him to go and enjoy the proceeds of cocoa farmers in this country, his picture must be seen on chocolate and somebody tells us that now he has gotten all the money in the world to be able to afford branding of chocolate in this country.”

“What are they telling us the cocoa farmers? They are telling us that things are hard so much such that they couldn’t even increase the producer price of cocoa in this country. They are telling us that things are so much hard to the extent that they couldn’t give cocoa farmers the bonuses they use to give them, they are telling us that things are so hard that the free distribution of fertiliser has been cut off but rather things are flexible to the extent that the CEO of COCOBOD can afford to brand chocolate with his pictures and we should not talk about that because that is fine and nice…what kind of behaviour is this? He quizzed.

Source: ClassFMonline