Players in the coffee industry have impressed upon the government to invest in coffee to boost the economy.

According to the experts, coffee, apart from having the potential to rake in more revenue to shore up the $2 billion that cocoa generates annually, could also create more than 500,000 jobs for the youth.

President of the Coffee Federation of Ghana, Chief Nat Nsarko, speaking at the maiden Ghana Coffee Conference in Accra on Friday, 5 October 2018, said Ghana cannot continue to rely on cocoa production to develop its economy looking at the alternative opportunities coffee presents to the country.

He said: “It is sad that in the face of Ghana’s potential to be ranked as one of the world’s leading producers of coffee, coffee shares of Ghana’s GDP stood at a paltry 0.12 in 2015.

“It is sad also that Ghanaian youth remain unemployed in the face of the great potential coffee provides. It is equally sad that the economy of Ghana continues to overly depend on Ghana’s age-old cash crop, cocoa when coffee can boost the economy just as cocoa has done over the years.

“Currently, farmers are lamenting that many of their cocoa trees are over 60 years with some being as old as 100 years. Cocoa has made amazing contributions to Ghana’s economy, no doubt about that, but it is time we made efforts to add other cash crops to support the exploits of cocoa in putting Ghana on the international agro-market.”