Ghanaian Minister says possibility of making $12bn from PERD

Ghana is capable to generate billions of dollars from other tree crops aside from cocoa with the successful implementation of the Planting for Export and Rural Development. An ambitious programme has been launched to diversify Ghana’s agricultural export capacity to include other tree crops with equal economic values as cocoa.

The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto has recently given the statement of Ghana’s capability to generate billions of dollar (mentioned above). The ambitious programme has been unveiled by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in association with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development. With the successful launch of one of the flagship policies under the Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD), six major tree crops namely coconut, rubber, cashew, oil palm, coffee and shea, the Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD) is set to generate over 12 billion dollars in export, as reported by Graphic Online.

He said that the six tree crops have the potential to outstrip cocoa and diversify the country’s economy from the over-reliance on only one crop as the major export commodity. “The Ghana Beyond Aid vision can only be achieved if we are able to increase our agricultural export capacity, this is what we hope to do through the PERD programme. The six crops combined can each fetch us $2BN in terms of exporting the raw materials alone and this does not include value addition,” Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto said at a recent Cocoa Value Chain Summit organized by Ecobank in Ghana’s capital, Accra.

Another reason why Ghana is highly expected to flourish in the exporting business of Cocoa. During the mid of this month, Ghana and Ivory Coast lifted the ban on the sale of cocoa. In mid-June this year, these two African countries vowed to suspend the sale of their 2020/2021 cocoa production to buyers unwilling to meet a minimum price of USD 2,600 per tonne.

The Management of Ghana Cocoa Board and its subsidiary the Cocoa Marketing Company (CMC) Limited clarified clarify that it has not failed to secure a buyer for its 2020/21 cocoa beans as has been widely publicized in the international media and replicated in the national media.

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