A spirited debate is underway in Ghana over the implications of China’s entrance into the global cocoa market. Various commentators, cocoa industry officials, and political leaders have all expressed concern over the past week that China will do to the cocoa market what it’s done in so many other sectors: crush the competition through subsidies and below-market pricing tactics.
Meantime, others contend that China is no threat to Ghanaian producers, given the latter’s role as the world’s second-largest cocoa producer. Instead, they argue, that this should be a catalyst to motivate Ghanaian producers to add value to their crop rather than continue to export unprocessed cocoa beans.
