Italian Investors have paid a courtesy call on the leadership of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), as part of efforts to explore areas to expand their investment.
The delegation from BF International, Italy’s largest agricultural group, was led by the Italian Ambassador to Ghana, H.E. Laura Ranalli.
Briefing the management of COCOBOD, H.E. Ranalli disclosed her outfit’s readiness to spearhead new partnerships between the Italian agribusiness community and COCOBOD to promote Ghana’s cocoa.
Dubbed the “Cocoa Connect Initiative,” the proposed collaboration will bring together public, private, and scientific institutions to move Ghana’s cocoa industry beyond raw bean exports into semi-finished and finished cocoa products.
At the core of the initiative is a newly envisioned 3,000-hectare mechanised cocoa development zone, which the investors seek to establish in Ghana to power the project.
The Chief Executive of COCOBOD, Dr. Ransford Annetey Abbey, indicated that COCOBOD is ready to provide full institutional, agronomic, and technical support toward setting up this technology-driven farm.
Dr. Abbey lauded the Italian company’s desire to invest directly within the Ghanaian economy, noting that both nations stand to leverage their respective strengths to expand global market share and boost local processing capacities.
He emphasised that local value addition sits at the very heart of Ghana’s cocoa transformation agenda and assured the delegation that a specialised team of COCOBOD experts would support the investment with research, agronomy, and all necessary technical services.
