Netherland supports Ghana cocoa industry with 7m Euro

Ghanaian Chronicle
To boost cocoa production in the country, the
Royal Netherlands Embassy, Ghana, has signed a
7 million Euro grant for a four-year Cocoa
Rehabilitation and Intensification Programme
(CRIP). The Dutch Ambassador to Ghana, H.E.
Hans Docter, indicated that the grant is expected
to leverage an additional private sector cocoa
industry funding of 14 million Euros.
The project would be managed and coordinated
by Solidaridad West Africa, with cocoa sector
partners and industries, including International
Fertiliser Development Corporation (IFDC),
Armajaro, Cargill, ECOM, Barry Callebaut, ADM
and Continaf.
The Ambassador made it known at a press
briefing in Accra, yesterday.
He said the support from the Netherlands was
aimed at developing economic, social and
environmentally sustainable support for cocoa
farmers in the main cocoa producing regions of
the country.
"It will provide the necessary technical support
for farmers to rehabilitate old farms and intensify
existing cocoa systems. It will work with the
Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana and COCOBOD
to boost availability of improved planting
materials for the farmers," he noted.
The programme, he explained, would target
entrepreneurial farmers who really want to
develop their cocoa farms into sustainable and
viable business enterprises, adding, "CORIP will
promote the establishment and operation of
cocoa Rural Service Centres (RSC) that will
promote and upscale cocoa production in a
sustainable self-financing way. The RSCs will be
privately run entities that provide training,
information, inputs and other technical support
for improved cocoa production."
According to him, the Netherlands is the largest
importer of cocoa from West Africa, and Ghana
is the second largest producer of cocoa and the
number one in the world, with total beans sales
averaging US$2 billion per annum, needs to be
supported.
"The programme is a good example of [the]
current Dutch policy of combining trade and
development cooperation. The programme
shows that public and private interests can go
hand in hand to add value, without the
government having to take on additional burden
to increase export revenue, make production
more sustainable, and improve farmer's profits,"
he stated.
The Director of Solidaridad West Africa, Isaac
Gyamfi, said the grant would benefit 40,000
farmers in six cocoa producing regions.