Anthony Fofie has been named chief executive officer of the board that oversees purchasing and pricing of the country’s crop.

Fofie, a 34-year veteran of the cocoa industry, replaced Isaac Osei, who resigned after his election as a member of parliament, Ghana Cocoa Board said on its Web site today.

Ghana will produce 720,000 metric tons of cocoa beans in the 2008-2009 season that started Oct. 1, up 4.3 percent from a year earlier, Brussels-based Belgian financial services company Fortis said in a report on Dec. 22. Neighboring Ivory Coast, the largest producer, will have an output of 1.375 million tons, down 4 percent from a year earlier.

Farmers in Ghana got a 36 percent price increase for their cocoa for the current season in an attempt to curb smuggling to the Ivory Coast. Cocoa in London is 1,768 pounds ($2,568) a ton, 66 percent higher than this time last year.