Thrillers and Suspense
Quite a few reports recently claimed that chocolate is recession-proof. It made sense, sort of. When everything else is going down the tube, there’s always chocolate–a little treat in hard times and not too expensive. But it it turned out to be just hearsay.
Continue reading “Chocolate Apparently Not Recession-Proof After All”
I’ve mentioned the social premium aspect of fairtrade in previous posts. I consider that at least as important as the guaranteed price, the other leg of the fairtrade system. My visit to the Toledo Cocoa Growers Association, though, taught me that there are different ways to distribute that social premium.
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.
Continue reading “Cocoa Processing Accelerates in Ghana”
Bloomberg News reported today that Ghana’s COCOBOD will seek a $1.2 billion loan to finance the cocoa purchase for the next season. That amount represents a 20% increase over the amount secured for the current season. Clearly, the COCOBOD is optimistic that Ghanian farmers will reach their production goal for the 2009/2010 season. During the current season, the board has bought 530,000 tons, about 120,000 tons less than planned for.
Continue reading “Ghana to Borrow $1.2 billion for Next Season’s Crop”
The world’s second largest cocoa producing country yesterday celebrated the inauguration of its new president, John Atta Mills. The event marked the end of the John Kufuor’s presidency which lasted two four-year terms. The initial election last December ended inconclusive since neither Mills nor his opponent Akufo-Addo received the necessary 50 percent of the vote. The runoff election on December 28 was extremely close–50.23 percent for Mills vs. 49.77 pecent for Akufo-Addo.
