Adom Cocoa Buying Company Limited has acquired Rainforest Alliance (RA) Cocoa Certification for the Local Buying Company (LBC) along with farmers in the societies and unions.

Three unions, namely Asunafo North, Asutifi North and Asutifi South, were rolled into the programme with five districts.

Forty-six societies and two thousand one hundred and ninety-three farmers registered for the programme.

Three thousand two hundred and ninety-one (3,291) cocoa farms, measuring about 3,746 hectares, were mapped under the programme.

These farms are estimated to yield 2,809.1375 mt of cocoa for delivery to some of Adom's partners on RA terms after successfully completing the annual audit.
Rainforest Alliance certification for cocoa signifies that the cocoa beans were produced on farms that adhere to environmental, social, and economic standards for sustainable agriculture.

These standards promote ecosystem conservation, wildlife protection, and fair treatment of workers, aiming for a more sustainable cocoa supply chain.
RA promotes sustainability practice, environmental protection, social responsibility, economic viability, traceability, benefits for farmers and consumers, and supply chain standards and impact.

These were disclosed during the presentation of the End of Year Buying Operational Report - September 2023 to August 2024 of the company at the 3rd Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Thursday at Antoakrom in the Amansie West district.

It was held on the theme "repositioning farmer co-operatives in the internal marketing of sustainable cocoa beans in Ghana to enhance smallholder producers' livelihoods and the environment".

Patrick Owusu, Managing Director (MD), Adom Cocoa Buying Company Limited, said they witnessed from the registered cocoa farmers of eleven Cooperative Cocoa Farmers and Marketing Unions a year before to fourteen in the year under review.

He noted that Adom Cocoa purchased 4,241.378 mt over the 42-week 2023/2024 main crop season and 105.250 mt in 12 weeks of the 2024 light crop season for delivery to Cocoa Marketing Company Limited of the Ghana Cocoa Board.

The MD indicated that Adom Cocoa paid out Ghc678.620.00 to cocoa farmers in motivation (10/bag) and Ghc101,793.00 as co-operative fees (1.5/bag) to augment the growth of the Unions.

"The number of cocoa sourcing districts increased from nineteen to twenty-three in the 2023/2024 crop year. Similarly, the number of co-operative unions supplying cocoa to Adom Cocoa increased from eleven to fourteen unions," he stated.

According to Patrick Owusu, the company's partnerships with Cocoa Source S.A., Didwa, IDH Farmfit, Tony's Chocolonely, and Cocoa Life deepened and greatly impacted their operational performance.

Mr Owusu bemoaned that 14.375 mt of produce delivered to the take-over centres was rejected for reconditioning, noting that this figure was higher than what pertained in the previous year's delivery of 3.5 mt.

"Our farmers, Purchasing Clerks (PCs), Depot Clerks and District Managers must pay attention to bean quality during fermentation, drying, bulking storage and evacuations to eliminate cocoa rejections," he urged.

Thomas Oppong, the Board Chairman, said procurement projection was 12,000 tonnes, of which the company achieved 36.22%, which constitutes 0.98% market share, placing the company in 16th position in the LBC sourcing league.

He said contributions to procurement by Co-operative Unions were Asunafo 3,052.6850mt (70%), West Akyem 208.0625mt (6.44%), Ayencofa 268.1875mt (6.17%), and Amansie West 177.1875mt (4.08%).

He noted that others are Asetenapa 172.9375 (3.98%), Ofinso Fine Flavour 91.5625mt (2.11%), Asutif South 89.3125mt (2.05%), Awutu Senya 54mt (1.24%), and Asutifi North 49.1250mt (1.13%).
The rest are Ayocofa 39.375mt (0.79%), Fanteakwa 34.3750mt (0.79%), Abocfa 19.75mt (0.45%), Suhum 13.5mt (0.31%) and New Juaben 4.5625mt (0.10%).

Pst Thomas Oppong indicated that funds deployed for cocoa procurement could purchase 4,592.850 mt, but sales made came up to 4,346.625 mt, representing 94.64%.

The Board Chairman noted that while the value of 6,385.69 tonnes procured in the 2022/2023 crop year was GhC 81,736,800.00, about GhC143, 960,220 was used to purchase the 4,346.625 mt attained in the year.

Operational challenges in the season include the lack of trading capital, inadequate office and operational vehicles, insufficient office and logistics storage space, and delays in Bean Tracker record submission for regular data upload/updates.

Poor empty jute sacks usage and accounting by farmers and purchasing clerks, inadequate canvas tarpaulins for Society operations.

Lack of funding to launch the operational monitoring and reporting dashboard software developed in collaboration with Cocoa Source for Adom, and persistent delays in Cocoa Board reimbursements for cocoa delivered to the CMC.