Eric Opoku is the Minister of Food and Agriculture

The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Eric Opoku, has lamented Africa’s share of the global market despite being a large contributor of raw materials.

According to him, Africa contributes about 70% of raw cocoa beans as cocoa export, which is used to make chocolate, but the continent only benefits from 1% of the chocolate market globally.

The minister said the goal of the John Dramani Mahama-led government is to move from exporting raw materials to producing finished goods that meet the global standards.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Africa Sustainable Commodities Initiative Ninth Meeting by Proforest and Solidaridad, he said;

“And even the cocoa we export just the raw cocoa beans. When you look at the entire African continent, when it comes to the supply of raw cocoa, Africa supplies over 70% of raw cocoa beans to the market. But when it comes to chocolate, that is where cocoa has been manufactured into chocolate. The global market is estimated around $119 billion. And African share is 1%.

“When it comes to raw materials, our share is 70%. But when it comes to value addition, we do just 1%. It means that our expenditure on manufactured goods imported from other countries will create jobs in those countries at the expense of our own people,” he added.

Eric Opoku added that the government is implementing the Feed Ghana programme to produce not only enough for consumption, but also for exports and the future.

"So, we are not only thinking about producing enough food to feed the people of Ghana. We are also thinking about producing enough raw materials for industrial operations. We believe that if we are able to establish that symbiotic, strong relationship between agriculture and industry along the value chain, we can create millions of jobs, bring down unemployment, and then also wean ourselves from the huge food import bill again," he stated.

Watch the minister's interview below

SSD/AE