A re-emergence of swollen shoot disease in Ghana has affected at least 17 percent of cocoa trees, further threatening output in the world's second largest producing country where nearly a quarter of farms are moribund, industry regulator Cocobod said on Tuesday. Cocobod Chief Executive Joseph Boahen Aidoo said around 23 percent of Ghana's cocoa tree stock, covering some 411,000 hectares, is over 30 years and had become unproductive.
"What it means is that at least 40 percent of Ghana's cocoa stock is not producing and it's a challenge we must resolve to sustain production in future," Aidoo told journalists in Accra. The government of President Nana Akufo-Addo aims to raise production to 1 million tonnes by 2020, from the current annual output of 800,000 tonnes. Aidoo said to achieve the target, Cocobod was seeking funding to undertake an extensive rehabilitation of farms, to be complemented by a hand pollination programme to be launched next week.
Ghana might not pay annual bonuses to cocoa farmers this year due to a drop in global prices which had cost Cocobod around $1 billion in the last two years, Aidoo said.
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