Cocoa sector, an answer to growing unemployment
The Programme Manager of Solidaridad, Mr Fred Frimpong, has observed that the high unemployment rate in the country could be reduced if the youth could capitalise on job opportunities in the cocoa industry.
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He said myriads of job opportunities currently existed in the sector but were yet to be filled due to the perception about farming in the country.
“We believe that younger generation must be introduced to cocoa at an early stage in their lives to help them develop that interest and possibly take up employment in the industry,’’ Mr Frimpong said in an interview.
He was speaking after Solidaridad, an international civil society organisation that facilitates the development of socially responsible and ecologically profitable supply chains, partnered a local travel and tour agency, TN Delfah, to take about 100 children from selected basic schools on a learning tour to cocoa farms.
The tour took the children to the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) to help the pupils develop interest in the cocoa sector at an early stage.
Mr Frimpong said the cocoa industry’s value chain, from nursery through harvesting and the processing into chocolates, drinks and confectionaries, provided massive employment avenues for the youth, who were seeking non-existent white colour jobs.
The Pupils, from De Youngster’s International and Jack and Jill basic schools, both in Accra, were taken on a sponsored tour dubbed: ‘Cocoa Learning Experience.’
It took them to the famous Tetteh Quashie Cocoa Farm at Mampong and the CRIG at Tafo, both in the Eastern Region.
The pupils were taken through the different processes and varieties of products made from cocoa.
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Appreciation
On her part, the Chief Executive of TN Delfah Travel and Tour, Mrs Tina Amenyah, thanked Solidaridad for supporting the initiative.
“We realised that the youth have a limited appreciation of the real value and opportunities that the cocoa crop offers them and the Ghanaian economy.”
“So we decided to start this as part of our local tourism drive and also create an avenue for the younger generation to develop interest in cocoa such that some may become entrepreneurs in the cocoa value chain,’’ she said.
Recent studies show that the average age of cocoa farmers in the country falls between 55 and 65 years.
With the initiative, Mrs Amenyah said children would be introduced to the crop with the hope that some could grow to become researchers and cocoa scientists besides the mainstream farmers.
Two other schools in the Ashanti Region will also benefit from the sponsored tour.
Ghana produced over one million metric tons of cocoa beans in 2011. Since then, output has averaged 850,000 tons annually due to factors that include pest invasion and unfavourable weather.