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(GIN) – Almost everyone loves chocolate, making it imperative to follow Ghana’s production shortfall and similar problems in Ivory Coast. These shortfalls have been fueling historic surges in cocoa prices, forcing customers to shell out more for familiar chocolate bars and other tasty sweets.
Ghana is the second-largest exporter of cocoa beans in the world, after Ivory Coast. Samuel Adimado, president of Ghana’s cocoa buyers’ group, said current crop figures were “shattering” and member firms were struggling to remain in business.
Normally, investment in agriculture is seen as humanity’s best hope of achieving at least two UN global goals: Ending Poverty and Zero Hunger. For Ghana in particular, agriculture is an overwhelming priority because that sector employs around 45 percent of the labor force (more than any other sector) and contributes some 15 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
Cocoa is iconic for Ghana, not just in terms of economics but also for its national identity, social history, and even its climate future. As the saying goes: “Ghana is cocoa, cocoa is Ghana.” Historically, as many as 800,000 people have worked directly in planting and harvesting cocoa, but nowadays many more are involved in the commercial, industrial, and service sectors.
Under normal conditions, cocoa production in Ghana is considered environmentally friendly, because beans grow without watering and need little additional pesticides or herbicides. However, more-frequent droughts and rising temperatures are already affecting West Africa and may even turn large swaths of the region to savanna by 2050, according to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Michael Ekow Amoah, deputy director of research at the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), noted that “the challenge that we cannot run away from is climate change. For Ghana, this means that farmers have great difficulty in planning their activities: Some plant too early, before the rains; some plant too late.”
Amoah added that “today in Ghana, the average age of a cocoa farmer is 55, which is not too good for the future.” In response, COCOBOD has launched a Cocoa Farmers Pension Scheme as a means of attracting the youth to the industry.
Last but not least, a critical issue is land tenure. Most cocoa farmers do not own the land they work on because they are migrant farmers. This does not ensure proper land use practices and adequate benefit-sharing among stakeholders.
As the surge in prices filters down to retail shelves, chocolate makers like Hershey expect to see a further slowdown in demand for their products from cash-conscious customers.
“We haven’t seen this kind of reduction in recent times,” said Adimado. “Rising global cocoa prices have incentivized smuggling, meaning losses could be higher this season.”
Lawyer stands up to president of Tunisia as he cracks down on free speech
May 13, 2024 (GIN) – Authorities in Tunisia are tightening a noose around the necks of its citizens, persecuting those who criticize the government and jailing dozens of Tunisians on dubious and political charges.
A small country wedged between Libya and Algeria, Tunisia also faces a severe economic crisis while the president repeatedly accuses his opponents of conspiracy and fomenting social tensions amid rising food prices.
This week, Sonia Dahmani, a prominent activist lawyer, was detained by masked security forces who forced their way into Tunisia’s bar association headquarters to make arrests. Dramatic scenes on TV showed police forcing their way into the Lawyers’ House, part of the legal union, where Dahmani had been sheltering, and bundling her out of the building.
The bar association called for a general regional strike in all Tunis courts beginning on Monday in response to Saturday’s raid.
During a discussion of whether the sub-Saharan African refugees and migrants moving through Tunisia would try to stay there and “conquer” the country, Dahmani shot back with “What kind of extraordinary country are we talking about? The one that half of its youth want to leave?”
Tunisia is not an attractive country to settle, she said, given the plummeting standard of living that was pushing its youth to leave.
The president has scapegoated Tunisia’s small population of Black migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees who have also faced abuses from the security forces. Authorities have also effectively dismantled Ennahda, the country’s largest opposition party.
In comments that were made public, President Saied linked undocumented Black African migrants to crime and a “conspiracy” to change Tunisia’s demographics. “Hordes of illegal immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa are still arriving, bringing violence, crime, and unacceptable and illegal practices,” he said.
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has called Saied’s speech racist, saying such remarks violate the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, to which Tunisia is a state party.
