Ghana: The dead man still breathing

Coca-Cola and Red Bull produce products loved by Billions around the world, being poor products as such. Water, brown syrup, too much sugar or coffee and taurin mixed with carbonic acid are a dream come true for consumers from different backgrounds. Both companies have realised that marketing is the key to success. Unlike other brands, they add the cherry on top: physical, mental, and emotional involvement of their consumers. A poor product gets centre stage in the lives of many.

Chocolate, especially when it contains over 50% cocoa mass, is the only man-made or natural product that makes humans happy. In addition, it is healthy when eaten the right way. Ghana`s current President, John Dramani Mahama, has announced that by 2027, 50% of all cocoa beans in Ghana will be processed locally. His ambition is to see 100% of all Ghana cocoa beans processed in Ghana to use the full potential of the value chain...which is massive and consistent.

Producing chocolate products is not rocket science. In 1965, late Joachim Brumeister, Hamburg-Othmarschen, Germany, set up CPC Cocoa Processing Company Limited, Tema, based on the request by Dr Kwame Nkrumah. The company started with high hopes, was subsequently listed and delisted from the Ghana Stock Exchange. Their products are not marketable outside Africa, where the money lies, as e.g. Germans eat 11 kg, Swiss 8-11 kg, Belgians 6-7 kg and Ghanaians 500 gr annually per head of chocolate products. The market is a Mafia-style environment and very competitive.

While setting up production capacity takes one to two years when things go right to plan, selling the produced tonnage takes far longer to achieve. Ghana`s private chocolate producers and the state-promoted industry have not come up with a convincing marketing strategy to let their words of more chocolate production not go to waste.

At the top of a working strategy, Ghana – hopefully – will have a Chocolate City, Chocolate Parade, Chocolatier World Championship and Chocolate Trail. Before dreaming of the cherry on the icing lets look into the foundation of the cake. What do we see? The whole cake does not work, the pastry is not baked well, the cake is destined to crumble and fall before the Ghanaians into shambolic pieces.

Joyce Mensah, former AIDS/HIV Ambassador of and for Ghana, travelled the world to put a spotlight on the problem in the country. He asked for medical assistance and financial help to curb the number of affected Ghanaians. For years, she has been an illegal migrant in Hamburg/Germany, only permitted to stay after having delivered her babies at the expense of the German taxpayer.

Each German wine region has a Wine Queen to promote locally, nationally and abroad Germany Wine. They get elected and crowned each year for a one-year reign. Through their personality, they promote the German wine of their specific region. Ghana? Oh, Ghana...what is wrong with you? Why don`t you use this inexpensive, highly effective tool as a means of nation building and selling your chocolate products abroad to the white man? And install a Chocolate Ambassador not as an honorary name given to specific Ghanaian personalities under the CocoBod, but as an official marketing Ambassador travelling the world alone or with the Chocolate Queen to promote Ghana Chocolate products. Sorry...I made a thinking mistake! Cherries do not grow in Ghana; Ghana cannot put it on top of the icing of the cake. Sorry, my mistake!

Cherries grow in the world of the white man!