Dr Randy Abbey is the CEO of the Ghana Cocoa Board

The Chief Executive of COCOBOD, Dr Randy Abbey, has noted that Ghana is likely to miss the cocoa production target in the 2024/2025 crop season.

According to him, the target for the season was 610,000 tonnes, but currently, COCOBOD has only raised 590,000 tonnes, and he is unsure if that could change soon before the end of the season.

“I don’t think that much will change, looking at the time we have to end the crop season... we could do about 600,000 [metric tonnes] at most, looking at the fact that we’re now doing the light crop season and we don’t see things turning around that much,” he was quoted by myjoyonline.com.

Dr Abbey also added that his outfit is working to "save" COCOBOD from the huge debts it has been saddled with by the end of 2028.

He noted that the board's debt ran into GH¢33 billion, adding that, “We are hoping that in four years, the books will be looking good, in terms of returning COCOBOD to some good profits.”

He also announced that, “COCOBOD will also be undertaking some cost-cutting measures that will go a long way to improve its financials going forward.”

Finally, he noted that the government is also implementing other programmes that will impact production levels for the new crop season.

“We will also look at some innovative measures to encourage the farmers to improve their yields,” the Chief Executive of COCOBOD added.

SSD/AE