The Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, has charged the newly inaugurated five-member board of the Quality Control Company Limited of the Ghana Cocoa Board to gear up their efforts in improving the quality of Ghana’s cocoa beans.
Cocoa from Ghana continues to enjoy a premium place on the World’s Commodity markets because of its unsurpassed high quality. The premium quality cocoa beans still continue to be the preferred choice of all chocolate and beverage producers of high reputation and distinction.
This status has been diligently maintained, over the years, through effective quality assurance practices of the Quality Control Company Limited.
The company, a subsidiary of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), performs the role of inspecting, sampling, grading, sealing and disinfesting cocoa and other produce for Licensed Buying Companies, in addition to preventing the exportation of inferior or infested cocoa, coffee, shea nuts and cashew nuts to other parts of the world.
The Board, which supervises these activities, has been tasked to ramp up their efforts in ensuring Ghana’s cocoa beans are ranked the best in the world.
Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto speaking during the swearing-in ceremony of the five-member Board of the company said: “Countries which, in terms of volumes, do as much or better than us are also adopting the methods that we are using to improve the quality of our beans. In recent years, Côte d’Ivoire, for instance, has its quality going higher because of the practices they’ve adopted from us. So you have a very heavy duty as a board.”
The new chairman of the Board, Dr. Ebenezer Owusu accepted the duty bestowed on him and his colleagues and pledged his commitment to ensuring the smooth running of the sector to bring value to all actors in the industry.
“Reaching the top is a monumental achievement. Remaining there may be the most spectacular feat of all. For this reason, we are going to ensure that the premium quality that Ghana’s cocoa beans enjoy will continue as a preferred choice of all chocolate and beverage producers of high reputation and distinction.”
Members of the Board are the Chairman, Dr. Ebenezer Owusu, who is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana, Legon, Dr. Barima Afranie, a Senior Lecturer at the College of Health Sciences at Legon, Businessman S. B. Kangbere, Kwaku Oppong, also a Businessman, and Julius Mark Kodjo Opoku Martinson, the acting Managing Director of the Quality Control Company.