Ghana Seeks $750 Million Loan to Replace Diseased Cocoa Trees
- Cocoa regulator to plant new trees over five to eight years
- Measure to improve yields, won’t affect this season’s target
Photographer: Jane Hahn/Bloomberg
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Ghana’s cocoa regulator plans to raise $750 million in loans to finance the replacement of almost half of the trees that produce the crop in the country because they are either old or ridden with disease.
Ghana Cocoa Board wants to cut down more than 400,000 hectares (988,431 acres) of trees over the next five to eight years, Chief Executive Officer Joseph Boahen Aidoo said on Monday. About a fifth of Ghana’s cocoa tree stock is affected by swollen shoot disease, a virus which reduces yields and kills a plant within three to four years, while another quarter are old and unproductive, Aidoo said.