Chinese Agric Minister Visits Cocoa Processing Company

Chinese Vice-Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Mr. Yu Kangzhen, last Saturday paid a working visit to the Cocoa Processing Company (CPC) to understand the operations of the company and how his ministry could partner with the company.

The minister is also seeking to help promote cocoa products, particularly chocolate and the other range of products from the company in China.

The Chinese minister, who was accompanied by a team of heads of various sectors of the ministry, was led to the company by the Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture in charge of Annual Crops and Animal Husbandry, Dr. Sagre Bambangi.

They toured the processing plant from when the beans are brought into the factory until they are changed into the finished and the semi-finished products.

The Managing Director of the CPC, Nana Agyenin Boateng, before visiting the plant briefed the Chinese on the operations of the company, explaining that the company is into semi-finished and finished products.

He said it was an opportunity for the Chinese to get a fair understanding of the production line of the company and identify how they could collaborate with the company to increase production.

Nana Boateng said for instance that the focus of the sector minister, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, is to do more processing instead of exporting the raw beans, explaining that that area could be of interest to the Chinese to support the company.

He said currently there are eight companies adding value to cocoa in the country, adding that until the year 2000, it was only the CPC that was doing “beans to bar”, that is from the cocoa beans to the chocolate bar.

By:: primenewsghana.com