Accra, Sept. 26, GNA - The Cocoa Producers' Alliance (COPAL) has expressed shock at the sudden passing away of Finance Minister Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu last Wednesday, saying it is a great loss to Ghana and the cocoa sector.

"It was with great shock that I learned of the sudden death of Honourable Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, I honestly do not know what to say," COPAL Secretary-General Hope Sona Ebai said in a statement. He described Mr Baah-Wiredu as "a great son of Ghana and a great champion of cocoa and sort of a cocoa farmer."

"It is my personal loss. I have not had the kind of access to any Minister in charge of cocoa in any member State of COPAL as he gave me; a true brother and a friend," he added.

COPAL is an intergovernmental organization instituted in January 1962 by representatives of the governments of five cocoa producing countries at a meeting in Abidjan, C=F4te d'Ivoire. It currently has ten member countries, namely, Brazil, Cameroon, C=F4te d'Ivoire, Dominican Republic, Gabon, Ghana, Malaysia, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe and Togo.

The member countries of the Alliance account for approximately 75 percent of total world cocoa production.

By his position as Finance Minister, Mr Baah-Wiredu had oversight responsibility for the cocoa sector In a related tribute, the Federation of Cocoa Commerce (FCC) Limited also expressed sympathies at Mr Baah-Wiredu's death. "I was very shocked to read the passing of your Finance Minister. We extend our deepest sympathy on behalf of the FCC Council and our membership to his family and to his colleagues within the Ministry which has such a close connection with cocoa in Ghana," wrote Mr Philip M. Singley, Chief Executive of the Federation. The FCC recalled a meeting it held with Mr Baah-Wiredu in London in January this year, saying they discussed cocoa and energy matters, "and he was a tremendously nice man."

Mr Baah-Wiredu, 56, died in a South African hospital after a short illness, a statement from the presidency said last Wednesday. He assumed the Finance portfolio in 2005 after previously serving as Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, and Minister of Education, Youth and Sports.