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ACCRA, (Xinhua) --
Ghana aims to achieve an annual cocoa production
of 1.5 million metric tonnes within the next four years through
reforms, the industry said Tuesday.
Addressing the
official opening of the West Africa Fertilizer and Agribusiness
Conference, Chairman of Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) Hackman
Owusu-Agyemang said necessary measures, including hi-tech
agronomy practices, were being put in place to reach this
target.
“It is our objective
to achieve a targeted 1.5 million metric tonnes in the next
couple of years. The achievement of this projection is dependent
on a number of factors, including soil fertility management,
pests and disease control, and artificial pollination of farms,”
Owusu-Agyemang said.
He added that the
payment of remunerative producer price, quality of planting
material, the adoption of irrigation on farms and replanting of
over-aged cocoa farms would also support the attainment of the
target.
Later at a press
briefing, the chairman said scientific research had proven that
the 1.5 million metric tonnes target was achievable within four
years.
He also urged the
African and West African blocs to work together in providing and
ensuring access to farm inputs for their farmers.
The four-day event
attracted more than 250 agriculture business executives from 43
countries.
Namanga Ngongi,
Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the African Fertilizer and
Agribusiness Partnership (AFAP), said without adopting improved
technology, Africa could not tap into the transformative power
of agriculture to fight hunger and poverty.
Almost 60 percent of
the world’s arable lands are in Africa, yet yields were low
because African farmers could not produce food surpluses with
tools and equipment at their disposal, Ngongi lamented.
“They are
constrained by poor rains and lack and access to better inputs,
improved and resilient crop varieties, better farming methods
and low uptake of other technologies to trigger agriculture
enterprise. Value addition is the key we need to turn and open
the door to Africa’s new agri-preneurs,” he stressed.
Since 2008, Ghana
has implemented a Fertilizer Subsidy Program aimed at using
fertilizer to boost overall crop productivity. Ghana’s new
government has set the ambitious plans to continue investing in
agriculture in order to become an agribusiness leader in the
West African region.
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Ethiopia earns record 866 mln
USD from coffee export
ADDIS ABABA, (Xinhua) --
Ethiopia has announced a record
866-million-U.S.-dollar earning from coffee export during the
just concluded fiscal year.
The announcement by
the Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Development and Marketing Authority
on Wednesday said Ethiopia has secured the revenue from the
export of 221,000 tonnes of coffee to the global market.
According to the
authority, the country has managed to achieve 92 percent of its
targets in coffee export sector during the 2016/2017 fiscal
year.
The authority
further hailed the performance as “a very great achievement”
compared to the previous years as the quantity of coffee product
exported grew by 11.5 percent while the income generated from
coffee export increased by 20 percent.
Germany, Saudi
Arabia, the United States, Belgium, Sudan and South Korea are
among the top importers of the Ethiopian coffee, accounting for
close to 86 percent of the total coffee exported from Ethiopia,
according to the authority.
Ethiopia is one of
Africa’s largest producers of Arabica coffee. Coffee production
is dubbed as the backbone of the country’s agriculture-led
economy.
The East African
country also announced 74 million dollars earning from gold
exports during the same fiscal year.
The revenue was
reduced by half from the previous period, when Ethiopia earned
150 million dollars from gold exports.
The Ethiopian Mines,
Petroleum and Natural Gas has blamed primarily the contraband
gold trading for the decrease in gold exports revenue.
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Tanzania eyes South African
market for coffee
ARUSHA, Tanzania, (Xinhua) --
Tanzania will soon start selling its
processed coffee in South Africa as the country encourages
exporting processed coffee products instead of raw beans.
Adolf Mkenda,
Permanent Secretary of Tanzania’s Ministry of Industry, Trade
and Investment, said Tuesday that the Tanzania Trade Development
Authority (TANTRADE) in collaboration with Tanzania Private
Sector Foundation (TPSF) have started working on the modalities
that will make Tanzanian goods including coffee penetrate into
the South African markets.
This is a result of
the recent agreements made by Tanzanian and South African
presidents—John Magufuli and Jacob Zuma—on the need to encourage
bilateral business.
Mkenda encouraged
Tanzanian coffee processors to offer products that meet
international standards.
“We’re losing
billions of Tanzanian shillings when selling raw coffee abroad.
A cup of coffee in London, UK and elsewhere in the world is much
more expensive compared to what we’ve been selling. As
government, we’re determined to change the trend by selling
processed coffee. This will benefit coffee growers and all
people in the value chain,” said Mkenda.
Edwin Rutageruka,
TANTRADE acting Director General, said the East African nation
produces one of the best coffee beans in the world, and TANTRADE
will distribute more coffee processing machines in Tanzania so
that more people can drink coffee produced locally.
Coffee is Tanzania’s
largest export crop, whose production averages between
30,000-40,000 tonnes each year. A total of 90 percent of the
nation’s coffee farms are smallholders, and there are
approximately 270,000 workers in the coffee industry.
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