The Regional Director of Solidaridad West Africa, Isaac Gyamfi, has called for policy coherence in the cocoa sector to increase production in order to generate income along the cocoa value chain. According to Mr. Gyamfi, coherent policies devoid of partisan interests would help the private sector to plan their investments in a manner that would transform the industry.
He noted that the input subsidy regimes in the cocoa industry needed to be consistent between political administrations.
“We are not against subsidies, but if that is the pathway, we will love to see it being firm such that the private sector can operate around it. It should not be such that one time there is subsidy and another time there is no subsidy, or sometimes the percentage is high, another time it is low,” he added.
Mr Gyamfi stated that at an event in Accra to officially close the Cocoa Rehabilitation and Intensification Programme (CORIP), and to share the success story of the programme and the lessons learnt from its implementation.
The CORIP was initiated by Solidaridad, with funding support from the Netherlands — the major destination for cocoa produced in West Africa.