10 August 2010 – The managing director of the cocoa cooperative Kuapa Kokoo that supplies Divine Chocolate, Kwasi Aduse-Poku has blamed cocoa smuggling for a shortfall in targets.

He made the comments during the 16th annual general delegates conference of the Kuapa Kokoo Ghana at the campus of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana.

“We target the purchase of 35,000 tonnes of cocoa beans, but could only purchase a little over 28,000 tonnes. The cocoa industry faced major challenges with respect to the smuggling of the beans and this affected our purchases greatly,” Aduse-Puko said.

Over 2,000 delegates had gathered from the five regions where the company operates. Aduse-Poku also noted, “We incur heavy losses on each bag of produce due to low quality, therefore, I urge you to take particular care over the issue of quality and ensure that the beans you present to the sheds are thoroughly dried to prevent deterioration during storage.”