The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), The Hershey Company, and the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) have announced a first-of-its kind program to use mobile technology to deliver practical information on agricultural and social programs to rural cocoa farmers, and enable the farmers to ask questions and provide feedback. The program, called “CocoaLink – Connecting Cocoa Communities,” will make use of Ghana’s rapidly developing mobile phone infrastructure and build on the existing successful... ...Read more »

Cargill has announced a three-year US$5 million commitment to support sustainable cocoa in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, including a partnership with CARE to sponsor a new program of activities to improve the livelihoods of cocoa farmers and their families in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. Cocoa is the largest industry and main export in the Côte d’Ivoire, with almost a quarter of its inhabitants somehow involved in the cocoa trade, and is inextricably linked to the country’s fragile... ...Read more »

SABMiller announced yesterday that its Ghanaian subsidiary, Accra Brewery Limited (ABL), will table a resolution at its AGM to be held on September 8, 2010, to seek a de-listing from the Ghana Stock Exchange.  SABMiller said that ABL has faced difficult market conditions over the past few years, and that a stock exchange de-listing will enable it to implement a business recovery programme. ABL, originally known as Overseas Breweries Limited, was registered in Switzerland in 1931, establishing a... ...Read more »

The chocolate industry needs to provide more financial support to cocoa growers in Ghana to guarantee future supplies from the west African state, leading academics and conservationists have claimed. The future of cocoa farming in Ghana – a key source of cocoa for multinational chocolate makers – is under threat from unsustainable farming practices, while the prospect of falling earnings is discouraging farmers from cultivating the bean. The growth in logging and the burgeoning trade... ...Read more »