Coffee grows well where cocoa develops but Ghana exported less coffee of only $34,000 in 2018.
Coffee farmers therefore find it shocking that government is not investing in the coffee value chain as it requires minimal capital.
President of the Coffee Federation of Ghana, Chief Nathaniel Ebo Nsarko speaking on “Talking Business with Nhyira Addo on Joy Prime” said the annual earnings from the export of coffee since 2015 to 2018 keeps falling.
“The coffee export revenue for Ghana in 2015 was abysmally around $3000, whereas in 2016 we hit very high, about $1.4 million. But in 2017 we had about $55,000 earnings and then in 2018 we had $34,000. So, you can see that we’ve been struggling whereas our competitors are doing very well.”
“They contribute hugely to their GDP. Ghana does about 0.2% of our contribution to the GDP. Ghana had done very well in the world of cocoa, ranking second in the world but when it comes to coffee, we’re not even on the list,” he revealed.
According to Chief Nsarko, coffee is very easy to handle and does not require huge capital, hence it is quite surprising Ghana as a country is not taking advantage of it.
“In Ghana the variety that we grow is mainly the robusta and I believe that with the climate change condition where cocoa lands are being quickly depleted, I think we should take a second look at coffee and it’s going to give us our money’s worth. Coffee is very easy to handle.”
“A cocoa farmer might have done cocoa for ages and may not have seen the processing of it but with coffee, once you engage in coffee farming, you can brew some yourself; the processing is not as cumbersome and difficult as cocoa. Therefore, it doesn’t require huge capital, so it’s quite shocking that as a country we don’t take advantage of the arable land we have in the country”, he explained.
