Accra, May 18, GNA - Mr Anthony Fofie, Chief Executive of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), said the country is committed to increasing the production of cocoa to one million metric tonnes this year. He said cocoa companies had adopted strategies to motivate cocoa farmers and improve on the quality of cocoa beans to ensure that they met the target.

Mr Fofie said the initiative would help Cocoa Marketing Company (CMC) to sell Ghana's cocoa on the international market for good prices to maximize the foreign exchange earnings of the country. He was speaking at a public lecture to commemorate CMC's 50th Anniversary on the theme 93Harnessing the Gains of Cocoa Trade: A Reflection of the Monopoly of Cocoa Marketing Company" in Accra. Information available indicates that COCOBOD purchased 693,000 metric tonnes of beans during the first 15 weeks of the 2010-11 main crop season, which ended on February 20, representing a 40.4 per cent increase over the same period last season.

The Management of COCOBOD had reviewed upwards its pre-season cocoa output forecast from 700,000 tonnes to 800,000 tonnes for the 2010/11 crop year. Alhaji Mamah Gado Mohammed, former Managing Director of CMC, said he was happy about the way CMC had developed into a major force within the commodity export trade in West Africa. He said over the years, CMC had gradually developed that its forward sales were being used as collateral for COCOBOD to access a syndicated loan of two billion dollars from the international financial and banking system. "This is certainly no mean achievement and it indicates the confidence reposed in CMC," Alhaji Mohammed said. Nana Oduro Owusu, Managing Director of CMC, was committed to sell cocoa at the international market at the best price obtainable and to undertake its external marketing functions in keeping with laid down regulations. He said 100,000 tonnes capacity complex was nearing completion at Kedjeibi in the Western Region to increase the current capacity to 488,000 tonnes. He appealed to the government for additional warehouses to enable the company to prepare adequately for the one million tonnes production target set by the country.