Cocoa, often referred to as the “black gold of Africa,” continues to generate revenue for European chocolate-producing nations despite their being non-cocoa tree planters, while countries on the Black Continent that produce cocoa, like Ghana, face many challenges, including poverty. Attempts to regulate the price of cocoa beans have never been successful due to the particular conditions of the product’s production and the historically defined parameters of market organization.
Cocoa products are now considered full-fledged exchange commodities due to the strong demand for cocoa beans for the manufacturing of chocolate, as well as for use in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and other industries. The confectionery industry is hard to envisage without cocoa goods; thus, despite all of the chaos, there is still a steady demand for chocolate worldwide. Nonetheless, cocoa producers in Ghana and other African nations endure wretched and destitute living conditions.
In Ghana, the cocoa sector is dealing with a number of issues, such as the impact of illicit mining, environmental hazards, and child labor abuse, in addition to the cheap cost of purchases. Many chocolate manufacturers in the industrialized world are aware that child labor is in the African cocoa industries, but only a few are making efforts to stop it. That means that the majority of European cocoa products and profits come from exploiting African farmers and child abuse.
In 2021, Belgium’s cocoa and chocolate manufacturing sector had a 505.6 million euro (+11.29 percent) growth in production value. As a result, the production value hit its greatest point during the monitored period at 5 billion euros, yet this country doesn’t plant cocoa trees.
About five million tons of cocoa beans are produced worldwide, and the biggest export nations are in Africa, with the exception of Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, and Indonesia. Ghana and Ivory Coast are the world’s two biggest producers of cocoa beans. They make up almost 40% of the world’s output, and Europe, the richest country in chocolate manufacture, is the world’s biggest exporter of chocolate despite not producing cocoa beans. However, the cocoa-producing nations in Africa remain impoverished.
According to the 2021 report by the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO), Ghana is the world’s second-largest exporter of cocoa beans, with an annual production capacity of nearly two million tons, following Ivory Coast, which produces over two million tons annually. This large export should have increased the nation’s wealth and the standard of living for farmers, but the impact of corruption, land degradation, and other problems has affected the nation’s cocoa industry, including the COCOBOD.
Africa’s cocoa industry has its origins in the colonial era, when Africans were compelled to cultivate cocoa for export by European colonial masters. The same phenomenon still exists today: low purchase prices that favor industrialized nations over African cocoa-producing nations have left many cocoa farmers in West Africa living in poverty and working in terrible circumstances since colonialism ended. Ghana is currently facing many challenges since the European Union reduced its purchasing power due to illegal mining.
According to Oxfam’s findings, African countries would benefit more from the US farmers and other developed countries by ending their subsidies, since that would help Africa more than the aid they receive. There are many ways the Ghanaian government can strengthen food security, such as by constructing food storage facilities and giving people access to new technological advancements that could enhance Ghanaian farming, since improved technologies are changing the production of food.
The Minister for Agriculture should think about increasing agricultural investment to build better roads and electricity, which would enhance living conditions and facilitate the transportation of cocoa from rural areas to the specified locations. It’s also worthwhile for farmers to get loans to better their living conditions by building reasonably affordable homes so they can raise their kids. More significantly, legislation to end child labor in Ghana must be passed by the government.
