Accra, March 10, GNA - The Africa Cocoa Coalition, a group of Non- Governmental Organizations promoting quality cocoa production in Africa, on Wednesday urged governments and stakeholders in the cocoa business to ensure cocoa farmers benefited from their labour. "The Farmers of producing countries, particularly Ghana and Cote d' Ivoire, appear to be the most vulnerable to the inequity in the distribution of the returns along the cocoa value chain," Mr David Kpelle, National Coordinator of Africa Cocoa Coalition said. At a Roundtable on the theme: "Sustainable Cocoa Economy in Ghana," Mr Kpelle said cocoa farmers were ageing as well as their cocoa farms and noted that incentives to encourage the youth to take over from the ageing farmers were not enough.

The Roundtable, the first of its kind in Ghana, brought together key stakeholders in the cocoa sector with the aim of creating awareness about the developments and processes involved in attaining a sustainable cocoa economy at the global level. The forum would also afford participants the opportunity to reach an agreement on the way forward on the internalization of key priority areas in achieving a sustainable cocoa economy. Mr Kpelle said defining a sustainable cocoa economy as one in which each person investing time or money into the cocoa supply chain would earn a decent income for them and their families, could not be true for the almost 800,000 cocoa farmers in Ghana.

While commending the government of Ghana for actions taken to improve income for cocoa farmers in recent times, he said the global demand for cocoa was projected to reach about 4.3 million tonnes per year by 2012 and asked how Ghana was positioning herself to take advantage to meet the global demand.

Dr Kwabena Duffuor, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, in a speech read on his behalf, suggested fair trade and fair price as one solution to help cocoa farmers benefit from their labour. "Market developments which negatively affect the interests of farmers tend to move people, especially the youth to urban centres in search of non-existent jobs," he said and added that such negative developments had the tendency to disrupt production processes.

Dr Duffuor pledged government's commitment to ensure a sustainable cocoa economy and said government was prepared to cooperate with development partners and other groups committed to sustainability. Mr Francis Otu Aqcuah, a cocoa farmer from Akwadum in the Eastern Region, in an interview said cocoa farmers had been involved in the process to create a sustainable cocoa economy.

He said even though government was doing well in terms of income to cocoa farmers, more could be done and said the farmers would continue to create awareness about the problems they face on the farms.

Captions, The first National Roundtable on Sustainable Cocoa Economy in Ghana held its first meeting in Accra today at Coconut Grove Hotel. Mr. David Kpelle National Co-coordinator of Africa Cocoa Coalition addressed the meeting. Picture 055 Shows Dr Yao Adu Ampomah acting deputy chief Executive officer of Cocoa Board addressing the meeting. Picture 063 Shows Mr Tey Kotei, representative of the Minister of Finance addressing the meeting. Picture 070 Shows A group photograph of the participants attending the Cocoa meeting. Picture 061 Shows Mr, David Kpelle National Co-coordinator of Africa Cocoa Coalition hand stress addressing the meeting. Picture 058 Shows A section of the participants who are attending the meeting.