GAWU sounded the alarm bells on a possible decline in revenue generated from cocoa by the end of 2024 following a revelation that Ghana’s first-quarter cocoa revenue dropped by $500 million. 

Speaking to Citi News, General Secretary of GAWU, Edward Kareweh said despite the reality, the government must still begin cracking the whip on illegal small-scale miners to avert possible future damages to the cocoa sector.

“We just need to appreciate that there is no immediate solution in terms of reversing the negative impact of the galamsey on our economy and then on cocoa production from now until the end of the year. In fact, even if we stop galamsey today, it will take us a number of years to be able to reverse the harm that it has caused our environment.

“We need to do some reclaiming of the land. We need to rejuvenate the forest. We need to try and purify the rivers. And that will also take a long time. So we don’t have immediate solutions.

“But then if we don’t start now, we will never be able to have the solutions. So we must start now to deal with all these negative factors again.”