Accra (Greater Accra) 24 June ?99

A member of parliament on Wednesday called for the establishment of more cocoa processing plants in the country to add value to the product and to provide jobs for the people.

''If we don't process our beans into different finished and semi finished products but continue to export raw beans, our economy will continue to suffer shocks and disturbances,'' the member said.

Mr. I.K. Nyame Ofori, NDC-Sefwi Wiawso, who made the call in a statement to the house on current problems facing the cocoa industry said the country stand to gain in view of the decline in world cocoa prices.

Of the total annual production of about 400 000 tonnes, only 75,000 tonnes (19 per cent) is processed locally.

The member said, however, that such a plant should be sited at Sefwi Wiawso, which is the centre of the highest cocoa producing area in the country.

He said a sizeable piece of land has already been earmarked for such a venture, apart from this, water, electricity and good roads are available.

Mr. Ofori noted that increasing the amount processed locally would also reduce congestion at the ports.

He said farmers must be encouraged to increase productivity per hectare instead of the present system of clearing more and more of the forest reserves.

Farmers in Ghana achieve 400 kilograms per hectare as compared to 650 kilograms in Cote d'Ivoire and 800 kilograms in Malaysia.

''In order to increase production, various inputs to motivate and assist farmers must be made available to achieve higher yields per hectare.''

The house agreed to defer contributions to the statement in order to devote more time to it.