Ghana’s economy is highly dependent on cocoa.

Average revenue earned from cocoa yearly is approximately $ 2.415 bn, about 3.11% of GDP.

Ghana is the second largest producer of cocoa globally, next to Cote D’lvoire, producing about 887,000 tones yearly on average.

However, this development is at risk as WNWN Food Labs produce first chocolate without cocoa.

WNWN is a company on a mission to create delicious, sustainable and ethical alternatives to unsustainable and dubious foods like chocolates produced from cocoa.

According to them, around 75% of all chocolate consumed worldwide comes from cocoa produced in Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire, which border each other in West Africa. This cocoa produce according to them are produced in ways that emit a lot of Carbon which contributes to climatic conditions.

The production of cocoa according to them, involves child and slave labour. There’re more than 1 million child labourers working in cocoa production in Ghana and Cote D’lvoire and 95% of them are exposed to the worst forms of child labour, such as working with dangerous tools or harmful pesticides.

Cocoa production causes deforestation. In the last 60 years, Ghana has lost 80% of its forest cover, Cote D’lvoire 94%. According to them, a third of these losses is attributable to coca production.  

The operators of WNWN Food Labs believe that sweet treats should be harm-free and guilt-free and hence the production of chocolate without cocoa.

The input substitutes for cocoa in the chocolate produced by the WNWN Food Labs include; British Barley, Organic Italian Carob among others.

EFFECT ON GHANA’S ECONOMY

Chocolate without cocoa is going to affect Ghana greatly since we are among the two top countries in West Africa known to be producing cocoa. These effects would be;

A decrease in the demand for cocoa in chocolate production;  Revenues generated from the exportation of coca will reduce drastically due to the new input substitutes for the production of chocolate. Chocolate producers will limit their demand for cocoa, causing huge decline in export revenues generated.

The standard of living of cocoa farmers will fall; Cocoa farmers that depend solely on the production of cocoa as their main source of income will also experience a fall in income due to the decrease in demand of cocoa. They would have to sell the produced cocoa at a lower price due to the fall in demand of cocoa.

There is a risk of a fall in investment; Ghana is known worldwide to be among the leading producers of cocoa. This has attracted major stakeholders such the European Union to invest towards improving the agricultural sector. These investments will cease following the decreasing demand for cocoa.

This discovery, although is innovative and can prevent some of the issues that are as a result of cocoa production, but has detrimental effects on the Ghanaian Economy.