The ACRAM delegation led by the Chairman, Mr Enselme Gouthon and accompanied by Mr Dosseh Assiongbon visited Ghana to pay a courtesy call on the Honourable Minster of Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afryie Akoto and the Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Cocoa Board, Mr. Joseph Boahene Aidoo on Monday October 09, 2017 in their offices both in Accra.
The visit and the meetings with these two distinguished officers were initiated and facilitated by Mr Patrick Zeal, a Senior Researcher in charge of Coffee at Ghana Cocoa Board.
The objective of the visit was to introduce the organization to the Ghanaian Government and its relevant institutions responsible for coffee sector regulation in Ghana. Further to that, the team sought to solicit for Ghana’s support and membership into ACRAM.
Mr Gouthon introduced the delegation and the purpose of the visit. He revealed the trends in global coffee and changes occurred in the management of Robusta coffee which culminated into the creation of ACRAM in November 2007. He further discussed the objective of ACRAM focusing on:
- Safeguarding the producer price for farmers;
- Mainstream gender systems into management of coffee in producing countries;
- Advance research and share knowledge;
- Streamline and strengthen value chain actors to create investment opportunities;
- Pursue youth engagements and initiate strategies for generational takeovers.
The minister on his part recounted his experience with global coffee trends and more especially his work at the International Coffee Organization in London. He further discussed previous government efforts in the coffee sector and went on to reveal the current plan underway to increase coffee production from 3,000 to 20,000 tonnes by 2022. He therefore welcomed the proposal by the ACRAM delegation and promised to look at the proposal submitted. He called on Chairman of ACRAM to keep communicating with him to work together in order to achieve the expected goals.
Mr Aidoo discussed the stress on the actors in the coffee value chain and more specifically the opportunities in the Ghanaian Coffee Sector. He underscored the need to reposition the Robusta coffee to optimise gains. He therefore promised to task his technical team to:
- Pay a visit and Work with ACRAM secretariat;
- Develop a framework to advance the course of Robusta Production.
This is expected to get Robusta Producers to have a common ground and one common voice at International decisions.
He further emphasized the need to support ACRAM to safeguard the interest and producer price for the farmers. In addition, the needs for Robusta Producing countries to develop and implement strategies to gain strong ‘say’ during international decisions. He called for the need for Ghana to join hands with ACRAM.
The Chairman of ACRAM seized the opportunity to invite the Honourable Minister and the Chief Executive of Ghana Cocoa Board to ACRAM General Assembly meeting schedule from 4th to 7th April 2018 in Yaoundé. Both Agreed to honour the invitation.
Ghana has shown undoubted commitment and readiness to initiate discussions towards supporting ACRAM.
The Chairman of ACRAM sincerely thanks the Ghanaian authorities for the warmly reception given him.
Done in Accra, 9th October 2017