The Kumasi Office of the Cocoa Processing Company (CPC), Ghana’s chocolate producers, has run out of the supply of the product ahead of the celebration of this year’s Valentine Day (Chocolate Day).

Both retailers and chocolate consumers in the metropolis are getting increasingly disappointed at the shortage and have been besieging the office as they keep asking why this should happen at this time.

February 14, every year, is the Saint Valentine’s Day and has been declared a “National Chocolate Day” by the government, to highlight the nutritional benefits of cocoa, the mainstay of the economy, and to encourage the people to consume more of cocoa products, locally.

It is against this background that the situation is seen by many as more worrying. 

Mrs Philomena Osei, a provisions’ shop owner at Adum, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA), that this was going to badly affect her business in the coming days. 

She indicated that chocolate and other related products including pebbles produced by the CPC tended to be in high demand during the month of February and that was when they got good sales. 

Miss Agatha Agyeiwaa, a vendor at the railway station, described the lack of supply as a huge blow.

The Ashanti Regional Representative of the Company, Mr Augustine Apom, confirmed that the company’s factory was experiencing some technical challenges, and that had affected the production.

He said it was unfortunate that this should happen in the peak season when demand for their products was so high.

Mr Apom said the limited stock had already been distributed to the retailers but admitted this was not enough.

He, however, gave the assurance that the company’s engineers were working around the clock to fix the problem and expressed the hope that the situation would improve in the coming days - to address the shortfall.