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The Executive Director of the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG), Dr Francis Padi, has called on stakeholders in the cocoa industry to help encourage the young generation to take a career in the cocoa industry.
Such career, he indicated, included agribusinesses that manufacture cocoa products, saying in that direction, it would help promote the consumption of cocoa products both in Ghana and other countries.
Mr Padi was speaking at the official inauguration of the Cocoa Club of Ghana at CRIG's premises at Akyem Tafo recently.
The club which has a lot of membership made up of workers of CRIG, was formed to develop the cocoa industry.
Dr Padi emphasised that if the cocoa club was assisted by stakeholders in the industry to be in touch with the younger generation it would help whip up their interest in the cultivation of cocoa and setting agribusiness to process the cocoa beans into many finished products.
Currently, cocoa beans can be processed in Ghana into both alcoholic and non- alcoholic beverages, different types of soap and chocolate.
The Deputy Director and Head of the Social Science and Statistics Unit of CRIG, Michael Owusu-Manu, said the club was a fun-based educational outreach programme aimed at empowering pupils in basic schools with the knowledge of cocoa production.
That, he said, would offer them first-hand information about the history and activities of the cocoa industry by connecting them with cocoa from beans to bar and more.
Mr Owusu-Manu, who is also the Patron of the club, noted that it was in that direction that last year 260 pupils from the CRIG M/A JHS were taken through the historical background of cocoa.
He said the pupils visited experimental cocoa farms where they learnt about the fermentation of fresh cocoa beans and then they were taken to the laboratory to taste the flavour of chocolate.
The Abuakwa North Municipal Education Director, Abena Gyamerah was happy that the cocoa club had been formed in the area to make it possible for basic school pupils to have more information on cocoa from 1815 to date which had been dubbed: "Cocoa through the Wheel of Time and the Sustainable Development Goals linked with Cocoa.
She advised other schools to introduce to the young ones the practical aspects of cocoa cultivation and processing to help whip up their interest.
