In a bid to boost coffee production in Ghana and West Africa at large, the International Trade Centre (ITC), in collaboration with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research-Food Research Institute (CSIR-FRI), has launched the maiden edition of a Handbook on coffee processing for farmers and agro-processors.

The handbook will be a manual for the harvesting, post-harvest management, and, more importantly, the processing of coffee for farmers and small and medium-scale processing enterprises in the coffee value chain in order to ensure quality in the industry.

Speaking at a short ceremony to unveil the book last Thursday in Accra, the Director of CSIR-FRI, Prof. Charles Tortoe, emphasised that the handbook is going to be a major game changer for the coffee industry in Ghana and West Africa.

Meeting international standards

He said the main goal of the handbook seeks to ensure quality that meets all international standards.

He added that the handbook would also enhance value addition in order to position the country to earn significant foreign exchange from the global multi-billion dollar coffee industry.

“The purpose is to look at how best we can add value to coffee. Production of coffee comes under the domain of Cocobod, but post-harvesting where we have value-addition is also a key sector that we need to bring on board so that at the end of the day, we can have a value chain that takes production to harvest.

That is why today, we are here to launch this manual that we have developed with the support of ITC and ACP,” Prof. Tortoe said.

He said the quality of coffee is key to the success of the coffee industry in the country, and with the availability good quality coffee, there would be more exports that would bring foreign exchange to the country.

“The exportation of coffee comes with quality and that is what this manual has captured,” he said.

Guideline

According to the National Coordinator for International Trade Centres and Alliances for Change & Value Chain Development, Larry Attipoe, there is a huge international market for quality coffee.

He said the manual developed would be a guideline for all the industry players in order to achieve the quality needed to compete on the international market.

“We are involved in this because we see coffee as an important value chain for our country with the opportunity to develop coffee communities. The opportunity is there. The coffee trees are in the bush but we need to bring them to the market."

"So, all the effort is to encourage them to produce quality and bring to the market in line with the mandate of ITC to promote competitiveness which is why we are involved,” Mr Larry Attipoe said.

About project

The project was funded by the European Union and was supported by the Organisation of Africa Caribbean and Pacific States including ACRAM – an international non-profit association that brings together private and public operators interested in the Robusta coffee sector in Africa and Madagascar.

It forms part of a bigger EU ACP Programme with the intervention being led in Ghana by the International Trade Centre.

In Ghana, the programme focuses on revamping the coffee sector by providing support to coffee value chain actors, farmer cooperatives, and support institutions through capacity-building training in good agricultural practices, harvesting techniques, and coffee farm establishment.

This is intended to enhance the productive capacities of farmers and value addition enhancement through the organisation of workshops on coffee roasting/cupping/coffee shop management and market development—participation of coffee MSMEs in international coffee fairs for B2B/B2C opportunities.