Accra, Nov. 19, GNA - The Chief Executive of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Mr Isaac Osei, has assured consumers of Ghana's cocoa, particularly the international cocoa market, that Ghana's cocoa is still of premium quality and that his organization will spare no effort to maintain it.

He said the COCOBOD, with support from the government, has the capacity to check any acts or commission by any player along the production chain, to compromise the quality of the produce.

The premium quality of Ghana's cocoa has not changed. It still ranks top in the international market and we'll stop at nothing to maintain the standard, Mr Osei said at the weekend during a meeting with the Executive Director of the International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO), Dr Jan Vingerhoets.

Mr Osei's remarks came in the wake of recent reports that Japan had rejected about 2,000 metric tons of cocoa from Ghana because the produce was found to have contained high chemical residue. He explained that the reported consignment from Ghana arrived in Japan just at the time the Asian country had raised its grading standards and had set new residual limits and that it was not only Ghana's cocoa that was affected.

He said while most international cocoa buyers, including those in Europe, determined the quality of the commodity by testing the beans, the Japanese were conducting their test on the shells. He called for a uniform standard of testing the commodity in order to eliminate disparities in the grading system.

=93We don't eat the shells. It is the beans that are consumed at the end of the day, so you cannot use the quality of the shell to grade the commodity. We feel there is need to harmonise the system to reflect the reality,=94 Mr Osei said in an apparent support for bean testing. This not withstanding, the COCOBOD is committed to reducing the level of chemical residue in its cocoa and has scaled up its education of the various parties in the production chain, especially the farmers, to adhere strictly to the limits of chemical application, the COCOBOD chief said.

To further guarantee the premium quality of the produce from Ghana, COCOBOD is working with research institutions, to develop a domestic capacity for the use of alternative pesticides that are currently universally accepted, he said

Mr Osei reiterated that Ghana does not intend to liberalise the external marketing of cocoa, saying the country's focus now is on maintaining produce quality and also enhancing the welfare of the farmer.

The issue of liberalizing the sale of cocoa in the international market has been one such controversial policy of multilateral lending institutions such as the World Bank, which have over the years put pressure on producing countries to implement it.

But both the past and current governments have exercised caution against it, saying it is not in the interest of the country. The country, however, liberalized the internal marketing system under which COCOBOD advances money to some 20 licensed buying companies, including the state-owned Produce Buying Company, to buy the produce from the farmers.

Currently, the Cocoa Marketing Board (CMC) is the sole body responsible for marketing Ghana's cocoa abroad. =93The system as it is now is fine. We don't intend to change it,=94 Mr Osei held.

Mr Osei also touched on the global campaign to rid the industry of child labour and said although the phenomenon was not pronounced in Ghana; COCOBOD had rolled out a programme with the farmers to eliminate any such practices.

'We cannot deny the existence of family hands, rather than trafficked children, in the farms which are of small holding nature. But whatever it is, we are going all out to eliminate any form of unacceptable labour in the industry.'

He cited the implementation of the school capitation grant and feeding system as some of such incentives that would help draw the affected children to the classroom.

In his remarks, Mr Vingerhoets said he shared Ghana's sentiments relating to the grading of cocoa and that Mr Osei's call for a harmonized standard was in the right direction. The ICCO Chief commended the COCOBOD for turning itself around to become an efficient body, from a 93not-too-well-organized institution=94 in the past and urged management to adopt the right policies to sustain the gains.

The meeting heard that as part of a restructuring exercise to enhance COCOBOD's efficiency, its staff strength has been pruned to =93less than 6,000=94, down from more than 100,000 in the recent past. Mr Vingerhoets also announced that discussions were almost concluded for Ghana to host the next ICCO International conference in October 2007. 19 Nov. 06