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Ghana asked to grow organic cocoa

Ghana has been urged to adopt the cultivation of organic cocoa to attract higher prices for the commodity on the European market. Organic cocoa is cultivated with the use of very little or no artificial preparations such as pesticides, among others, but natural methods.

Mrs Francisca Staubli Asobayire, the Project Manager of the Swiss Import and the Promotion Programme (SIPPO), who made the call, said more and more people in Europe are adapting to organic products so it would be in the interest of Ghana to capture that market.

She was delivering a paper on the topic: "Production of organic cocoa so its market potential", at an international seminar on organic cocoa held in Accra. The two-day seminar is being attended by participants from France, Switzerland, Britain and Ghana.

Mrs Asobayire said too much of pesticides and herbicides are being used in recent times in the cultivation of cocoa and other farm produce. She said this is what people are refusing to take because of their taste for farm produce, which are cultivated through natural means.

Mrs Asobayire said: “The most important driving factor of the market growth is an increased health awareness of consumers.” Mrs Asobayire said the market for organic cocoa has developed well to date with annual market growth for the last three years reaching between five to 10 per cent.

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