The Deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Cocobod in charge of operations, Dr. Emmanuel Opoku has announced that in the coming cocoa season, every cocoa farmer will be registered and issued with a unique ID cards which will be used in all cocoa transactions in the country.
He added that without this unique ID, “no one can sell cocoa in Ghana”.
“For the first time, we are registering all cocoa farmers in the country, we have started, we are half way, and I believe that by the middle of next year, we would’ve registered every cocoa farmer in the country. It is not just the registration, we will go to the community, measure the farms to have all the cocoa farms in a data base and then the owners of the farm and the household information so we will have every information about cocoa farmers in the country”. Dr. Emmanuel Opoku
Dr. Opoku explained that Cocobod is introduction this system to phase out physical cash in cocoa trading in the country by next year. “All payments will be made electronically by October 2022”. – He said
The move has become necessary because globally, cocoa consuming countries are concern about environmental protection, forest preservation and land degradation.
“The registration of the farmers will enable Cocobod have a specific address of each cocoa farmer. This information will then be shared among EU countries to enable them trace where exported cocoa is coming from”.
Dr. Opoku said this will enable the buyer in Europe to go on the map and check all the cocoa landscape and know if the cocoa is coming from a red or green zone.
“Very soon the traffic light system is going to be used to export cocoa beans from Ghana. By this method, we want to be ahead of the EU due diligence legislation that they are coming up with which will require countries exporting cocoa to show proof that the cocoa being exported is not coming from a reserve forest”. – Dr. Opoku
He added that “we are using this same system to deliver inputs to the farmer, currently we provide subsidies of inputs to the farmers, that subsidy will now be sent directly to the farmer electronically which cannot be negotiated for cash”.
Dr. Emmanuel Opoku was speaking at an event to launch a three year project dubbed ‘Yen Ne Mmofra No Nti’ to tackle forced and child labor in cocoa and gold mining communities in the country.
