Accra, March 16, GNA - Cocoa Processing Company, a cocoa manufacturi= ng firm, said on Tuesday that it processed 14,178.32 metric tonnes of cocoa in 2009 just about 24.4 per cent of the planned output of 58,050 metric tonnes= .. The company's confectionery factory also missed its target of 2,200 metric tonnes, realising 1,146.97 metric tonnes.

Mr. Richard Amarh Tetteh, Managing Director, said the company could no= t meet its programmed 90 per cent throughput capacity utilisation of about 5,000 metric tonnes per month due to constraints in the supply of cocoa beans, power cuts, interruption in water supply and lack of working capital= .. "These tec hnical and operational bottlenecks resulted in a cumulativ= e five months shut down of the two cocoa factories", he told reporters and brokers at the Facts Behind the Figures Programme of the Ghana Stock Exchange in Accra. CPC has a throughput capacity of 64,500 metric tonnes per annum. In order to scale the challenges and restore the company on the path of profitability, Mr. Tetteh said management had concluded a new beans purchas= e arrangement with the management of COCOBOD to ensure regular supply of coco= a beans to the factories. In addition, the company is also installing complementary machinery and accessories to make the second cocoa factory fully flexible in the production of cocoa liquor, cocoa butter and cocoa cake and powder. "On commissioning of both cocoa butter and powder production lines in May this year, the company would be positioned to achieve the programmed throughput of about 5,000 metric tonnes per month," he added. CPC's turnover fell 23.15 per cent to GH¢45.5 million in 2009 from GH¢59.2 million for the same period last year. The company's loss worsened by 30 per cent to GH¢16.9 million up fr= om GH¢11.8 million. Mr. Tetteh said management would commence the rehabilitation and expansion of the confectionery factory this year to improve volumes and variety of confectionery products. "When this is complete and the company starts satisfying the growing demand of the Golden Tree products in the West Africa sub-region, its finances would be greatly enhanced", he added.