OLAM a licensed buying company (LBC) is supporting cocoa farmers in the Kakum area of Twifo Praso district in the Central Region for the production of sustainable cocoa.
There are 13 steps the farmers has to follow towards achieving sustainable cocoa, including,waste management, water conservation, wildlife protection, avoidance of child labour, use of protective clothing and waste water management among others.
At the moment, OLAM is providing training, cutlasses, monitoring and other support services to help the farmers achieve their target.
These came to light when Messrs Hiroshi Ogata of Confitera Trading Company in Japan and Norinisa Hirota of Fuji Oil also in Japan who were in the country to trace the source of cocoa beans they have been buying , visited a number of cocoa farms in Kakum area in the Twifo Praso district.
They were conducted round byofficials of OLAM including Mr Eric Asare Botwe OLAM LBC Head, Deepak Choudhary, Co- ordinator for Western South, James Arday, Dunkwa Zonal Manager and Isaac Sackey, Zonal Manager, Traceability and Certification.
At Twifo Tweapease and Twifo Anthony, the team inspected a total of nine acres of cocoa farm and also interacted with farmers at Twifo Bobi and Twifo Paaso.
Mr Botwe told the farmers that they stood to benefit a lot should they work hard to produce more coca since they would be paid premium on their produce whilst part of the premium would be converted into community projects.
''The amount of investments OLAM would make towards community development would largely depend on the number of cocoa bags the company would purchase from the community ''
The Head of OLAM LBC encouraged the farmers to embrace the new traceability and certified cocoa idea.
Mr Botwe was not happy with the farmers at Bobi who sold only six bags to OLAM despite the assistance the company was offering them by way of training and other support services.
Speaking to the press after the inspection, Mr Ogata said Japan had been buying about 80 percent of the country's cocoa and so their expectation of the Ghana's cocoa were higher.
''Japanese are appreciative of the good quality of Ghana's cocoa beans'', he said, adding '' Ghana cocoa beans have been maintained good on the international market because of its quality''.