The Cocoa Processing Company (CPC) of Ghana posted a large increase in revenue. According to an article in the UK’s Guardian, the CPC will increase its revenue fivefold from $42.5 million to $208 million. CPC’s director Richard Amarh Tetteh indicated that total tonnage processed will amount to 64,500 tons for the current cocoa year.
The CPC exports intermediate products such as chocolate liqueur, cocoa butter and cocoa powder. Its confectionary arm also produces a chocolate bar for local consumption.
Processing of cocoa beans in producer countries has increased over the years. As I reported ealier, the Cote d’ivoire is the fourth largest processor in the world. Ghana has lagged behind, ranking at eigth place, but has plans to increase local processing to 500,000 tons. Much of that will be done in factories owned by transnational corporations like Cargill, but the arrival of locally owned processors represents an important shift in the control of the value added.
CPC is ready to run at full capacity and aims to increase sales to other African countries, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. The current economic crisis is bound to put a damper on such optimistic projections. The price of cocoa may not decline a lot given the supply constraints. But the decline in total demand will hurt processors, especially those new to the market. The lack of established supply relationship may pose a problem to the expansion.
