European Union Ambassadorto Ghana, Irchad Razaarly,has assuaged the fears of Ghana over being banned from exporting cocoa beans on the international markets.

Earlier, the Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, in a Facebook post, contended that the European Union, through a legislative instrument, intends on banning cocoa from Ghana and some other African countries.

The EU’s legislative proposal aims at curbing deforestation and forest degradation driven by the expansion of agricultural land used to produce specific commodities, namely cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, soya and wood, as part of its efforts to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.

With the current land degradation through illegal mining and the use of chemical residue that leaches into cocoa, state officials fear Ghana may not meet the requirement of exporting cocoa if the EU’s proposed regulation is implemented.

Contrary to reports of a possible ban on the export of Ghana’s cocoa to the international market, the EU Ambassador to Ghana, Irchad Razaarly, stated that the move must not be seen as a threat to Ghana’s cocoa sector.

Speaking at the second edition of Orange Cocoa Day 2022 in Accra, he said Ghana’s cocoa beans are a much preferred commodity amongst other cocoa producers in Africa.

Mr Razaarly disclosed that the call for more sustainable cocoa production is to “ensure that cocoa and other commodities are produced in a socially environmental sustainable way. This explains EU’s legislation on afforestation and forest degradation and must not be seen as a threat to Ghana’s cocoa.”

“There is no ban on Ghana’s cocoa. On the contrary, we want more of Ghana’s cocoa, and we are insupport of Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire amongst all of the producers who meet these requirements,” he stated.

On his part, the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, mentioned that the government, together with the Ghana Cocoa Board, is working to implement feasible policies to combat the degradation of Ghana’s forest reserves.

“We are also implementing the joint frame for action. Which was signed in 2017 with 36 cocoa and chocolate producing companies under the cocoa and forest initiative to halt deforestation and forest degradation in the cocoa value chain.”

He said that under this programme, the “signatory cocoa and chocolate producing companies have committed to sorting cocoa from forest reserves. To support this, the Ghana cocoa board has developed a data management and operational platform consisting of socio-economic data of all cocoa farmers and other key stakeholders in the value chain for the entire cocoa landscape in Ghana.”

Source: The Independent Ghana