News report, Ghana, January 2008
Ghana will receive £600,000 to facilitate sustainable development in cocoa growing communities from a partnership fund established by Cadbury, one of the world’s leading producers of cocoa beverages.
The company says the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership fund has a seed amount of £1,000,000, but is expected to rise in the coming years.
The President of Cadbury Schweppes Britain, Ireland, the Middle East and Africa, Matthew Shattock, announced the fund at a press conference in Accra. The Cadbury Cocoa Partnership has been established in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme to help address the dwindling fortunes of cocoa production in Ghana, Indonesia, India and the Caribbean.
The company says that the fund will facilitate sustainable development in cocoa growing communities in the five countries. Again, it is intended to improve income levels of cocoa farmers and introduce new sources of rural income through micro-financing.
The Managing Director of Cadbury Ghana Ltd., James Boateng, explained the fund will have an international supervisory board in Britain and an administrative body in the country:
“I would say without hesitation that the most deprived farmer will be our priority, after which we will take it forward.
However this initiative is not just going to be individual centred, it’s going to impact communities – it is very community led. And we intend to very closely engage the various communities for purposes of ownership as well. It’s not being forced out on them, and that’s the beauty of it and that’s the difference of our initiative.”