China exporting cocoa not a cause for alarm

Former Ambassador to China, Edward Boateng, has stated that he doubts China will pose a major threat to Ghana as it begins growing its own cocoa.

The Asian country is reported to have exported to Belgium its first batch of cocoa beans weighing 500 kg worth about $3,600.

He stated that “I think China has made progress in terms of developing cocoa, but I don’t think that they are going to pose a major threat to us. There are a lot of factors which add to our competitive advantage.”

“The climate in West Africa [is a competitive advantage], we also have more land to grow cocoa than China. Yes china may be a bigger country but our arable land available in Ghana for agriculture is much higher than China”

Organisations like the Ghana Cocobod and the Concerned Farmers Association have expressed worry about the development.

But in an interview with Citi Business News, Ambassador Boateng stated that based on several variables, China may not be able to produce cocoa at a rate that would be alarming for Ghana.

The former Ambassador however stated that the development presented an opportunity for the country to begin looking at other products made from Cocoa to stay relevant.

“I think what we should be looking at is how much more can we do with our cocoa. That is the way I would look at it. In terms of our competitive advantage, I still think that we as a nation have more room to develop more products with our cocoa.”

“Everybody talks about chocolate but there are a lot of other product lines like wines, soaps, body creams of all types, desserts and other different types of things we can do.”

The Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences (CATAS)  revealed that South China’s island province of Hainan exported cocoa beans to Belgium for the first time.

The batch of cocoa is reported to have been produced in Xinglong, a township of Hainan with a tropical climate.

Source: Citi Business News