Wines of South Africa (WoSA) yesterday held its 2022 edition of wine tasting in Accra.
The annual event which brought together producers of wines from South Africa with lovers or wines, entrepreneurs, distributors, and other tradesmen to network was organised by WoSA in collaboration with the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA).
Dr Afua Asabea Asare, CEO of GEPA in an interview with the media stated that the partnership would helppromote economic transaction between the two countries, while boosting intra-continental trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Recognising the untapped potential of Ghana’schocolate industry, she said her outfit was collaborating with the organisers of the event to expand Ghana’s growing chocolate industry.
“GEPA sees this collaboration as strategic because it creates a good platform to promote our premium chocolates which compare very well with that of chocolates from the traditional chocolates producing countries in the West,” she stated.
According to her, aside the three major chocolate exporting companies in Ghana; Cocoa Processing Company, Niche Cocoa and Fair Afric Ghana, GEPA has helped in the area of capacity building in the fast-growing artisanal sector, with over 30 companies producing innovative products.
DrAsare stated that GEPA sponsored members of the Cocoa Value Addition Artisans Association of Ghana (COVAAAGh) to participate in roadshow events in Lagos and Accra on July 14 and 16, 2022, respectively.
She added that GEPA is preparing the participation of the industry in the main event to be held in South Africa as well as the Salon du Chocolat Fair in France, all scheduled to take place later this year.
“In 2021, GEPA organised and supported the industry to participate in Salon du Chocolat in Paris. On the sidelines of the fair, GEPA organised a trade and investment fair in Paris to further promote our chocolate industry to investors,” she said.
Ghana’s cocoa the CEO said was widely accepted as a very premium product in the global cocoa value chain industry, supplying roughly, a quarter of the world’s cocoa beans, a critical input in the nearly $140 billion global chocolate industry adding that Ghana got little from the chocolate billions because of low capacity to process our cocoa into chocolates and other higher-value cocoa product
“In a bid to bridge this gap, the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, recently made it a top priority for Ghana to extract more value from the cocoa it produces and to that end, plans to spend roughly $200 million on improving Ghana’s cocoa processing capabilities in the near future” she stated.
She said GEPA has identified chocolates and the entire processed cocoa value chain as one of the priority products in the National Export Development Strategy (NEDS) which was launched by the Ministry of Trade and Industry in 2020.
The South African High Commissioner to Ghana Grace Jeanet Mason stated that both countries needed to collaborate to streamline and standardise systems for contract execution.
WoSA is a not-for-profit industry organisation that is responsible for export promotions of South African wine in key international markets.
BY BENEDICTA GYIMAAH FOLLEY
