The Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) in collaboration with Fairafric, a chocolate manufacturing company yesterday donated 1, 500 bars of chocolate to the Dzorwulu Special School in Accra to commemorate this year’s Chocolate Day.
The Head of Corporate Affairs at GTA, Mr Jones Aruna Nelson, said the donation formed part of activities to create awareness on the need to patronise Ghanaian chocolate and other cocoa products to boost domestic tourism, adding: “This is our way of showing love to the students on this special day.”
He said chocolate had a lot of nutritional values for the body and urged individuals to continue to consume the products to build their immune system.
Mr Nelson said in 2017, the per capita consumption of cocoa was 0.5 kg but currently the consumption was 1.0 kg as compared to other European countries which was between 7kg -11kg.
“So we’re saying that much as we have increased to 100 per cent, we need to do more because our cocoa is premium and if we patronise what we have, it will boost our economy and create more jobs for the people,” he added.
The Marketing Team Lead, Fairafric, Mr Ishmael Quaye, said their partnership with GTA was to promote the consumption of chocolate and its significant benefits to the consumer.
He said Fairafric believed in sustainability and impact for socio-economic development.
“This is to give everyone the opportunity to eat chocolate and this is what we stand for; we want to promote the consumption of chocolate, the health benefits and make it a lifestyle for Ghana,” he stated.
Mr Quaye indicated that, access to cocoa beans had been a challenge especially for those who produce organic chocolate and called on COCOBOD to make beans available at an affordable price to enable the local cocoa processors to produce more chocolate for the local market.
The Headmaster of Dzowulu Special School, Mr Fredrick Tetteh, expressed gratitude to GTA and Fairafric for the gesture in a time like this to share love with the students.
BY VIVIAN ARTHUR