The Executive Director of the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana, Dr. Yaw Ampomah, has said that the country is on course to meet its production target of one million tonnes by the year 2010.

He said good agronomy practices and enhanced research put the country in a good position to attain the production target.

“Barring any unforeseen circumstances and taking into account the level of activities, the country could realise between 800,000 and 900,000 tonnes next year,” Dr Ampomah said at training programme for purchasing clerks of Cocoa Merchants Ghana Limited.

Ghana achieved a record cocoa production of 740,458 tonnes in the 2005/06 season.

The training programme on the theme: “Enhancing Performance for better and Efficient Delivery,” was to equip the purchasing clerks with skills to enable them offer efficient services at the various centres.

Dr. Ampomah asked the clerks to maintain the integrity of the beans at all times to ensure that the premium quality was not compromised.

He expressed satisfaction with the training and said it was necessary to educate purchasing clerks so that they in turn could help pass on some of the results of extension work done at CRIG to the farmers.

Nana Amo Adade Boamah, Managing Director of Cocoa Merchants Limited, said the company purchased 20,000 tonnes of cocoa during the main crop season, which started October 2006 and ended in May this year. The figure was an improvement over the 2005/2006 season in which the company purchased 15,000 tonnes of cocoa.

Nana Boamah attributed the good performance to the hard work of the purchasing clerks and urged them to continue with the good work.

However, he was unhappy with the dishonest behaviour on the part of some purchasing clerks, poor record keeping at local level, misreporting, cheating of farmers and the use of unapproved weighing scales as well as the purchasing of poor quality cocoa.

Nana Boamah said the company was prepared to work with staff, who would accept the change and with support from management perform better.

The company, which employs about 2,000 people made up of purchasing clerks, accountants and managers, operates in 36 districts spread over the cocoa growing areas.

It also has relationship with 2,000 cooperative societies.

Mr. Lawrence Ayisi Botwe, Operations Officer of Cocoa Merchants, said the company could only win the competition with the right mix of manpower resources.

The three-day seminar would take participants through quality checks, proper handling and care of company property, management and proper utilization of funds, worst forms of child labour in the cocoa industry and redenomination of the cedi.

Source: GNA