SECTOR CAPABILITIES - Cocoa Powder (unsweetened) From Ghana

Cocoa products from Ghana are produced, processed and exported throughout the whole year. Ghana is one of the largest exporters of cocoa products worldwide, with decades of experience in the production of cocoa. The country remains the best quality bulk cocoa producer by ensuring minimum quality standards, set by Ghana Cocoa Board. These standards exceed the benchmarks set in the international cocoa market for the trade in Good Fermented Cocoa. Therewith, ‘Ghana made’ has been grown as a symbol of quality in the international cocoa industry.

Cocoa Powder is one of the value added products within the Ghanaian cocoa sector. It is produced with no added sugar or other sweetening matter. The product can be consumed as bitter cocoa powder or further processed in the confectionery industries to produce cocoa products with added sugar and other sweetening matter such as known brands such Milo or Bournvita. Cocoa powder from Ghana is ensured to have great flavour and aroma.

Ghana develops new standard for sustainable cocoa
Over the past few years Ghana has led the development of a new global standard for sustainable cocoa. This standard has been adopted by the International Standards Organisation (ISO) and used internationally to measure the cocoa’s quality level. The new standard was developed through an international project. It supported the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) under the Trade Capacity Building Programme for Ghana, funded by the Switzerland Government (State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO) and the United Nations Industrial Development Cooperation (UNIDO).

The following parts of standards on sustainability and traceability of cocoa were launched Mid 2018

ISO 34101-1 Requirements for sustainability management systems
ISO 34101-2 Requirements for performance (Profit, People and Planet related
ISO 34101-3 Requirements for traceability
The fourth part of the sustainable and traceable cocoa beans standard is in process and concerns the ISO 34101-4, on Requirements for Certification Schemes.

National standards for cocoa reviewed since 2017
Also, four national standards on cocoa have been reviewed. The optimized standards have been prepared and submitted for gazetting and publishing since July 2017. Standards involved include:

GS CAC RCP 1 – General Principles for Food Hygiene
GS 547 – Specification for cocoa bean
GS 741 – Specification for chocolate
GS 739 – Specification for Cocoa Powders (Cocoas) and Dry Mixture of cocoa and sugars

• General high quality of Ghanaian cocoa, because of the higher-than-average fat content
• Low levels of bean defects, resulting in favourable flavour
• Low levels of debris
• Low levels of Cadmium and other metallic substances
• High developed and structured cocoa ecosystem
• Multinationals and local companies with high repute populate the industry
• Certainty of consistent and reliable shipments and documents via the Cocoa Marketing Company
• Constant options to buy cocoa powder, because of the large production of cocoa in Ghana
• Quality control laboratory of Cocobod, has been upgraded to ensure quality bean supply, hence quality cocoa powder