A former Managing Director of Cocoa Marketing Company (CMC), Alhaji Mamah Gado Mohammed, has called on the company to maximise the country�s cocoa earnings.
He said although CMC had made headway with most of its challenges, the most threatening one faced by the Company was a policy decision intended to liberalise the external marketing of Ghana�s cocoa.
He was speaking at a public lecture to commemorate CMC's 50th Anniversary on the theme "Harnessing the Gains of Cocoa Trade: A Reflection of the Monopoly of Cocoa Marketing Company" in Accra.
Gado Mohammed said he was happy about the way CMC had developed into a major force within the commodity export trade in West Africa. He said, over the years, CMC had gradually developed so that its forward sales were being used as collateral for COCOBOD to access a syndicated loan of two billion dollars from the international financial and banking system.
"This is certainly no mean achievement and it indicates the confidence reposed in CMC," Alhaji Mohammed said. Nana Oduro Owusu, Managing Director of CMC, said CMC is committed to selling cocoa on the international market at the best price obtainable and to undertake its external marketing functions in keeping with laid-down regulations.
He said a 100,000 tonnes capacity complex was nearing completion, at Kedjeibi in the Western Region, to increase the current capacity to 488,000 tonnes.
He appealed to the government for additional warehouses to enable the company to prepare adequately for the one million-tonne production target set by the country.
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