Cocoa buyer Armajaro gives GH¢30,000 to Ghanaian farmers
Armajaro Ghana Limited, the third-largest cocoa buyer in the country, has presented a cheque worth GH¢30,000 to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), as its contribution to the celebration of Farmers Day held recently.
Making the presentation in Accra on Tuesday, Armajaro’s Director of Operations, Nelson Kpodo-Tay, said Armajaro has a strong reputation in the cocoa sector with innovations in the internal marketing of cocoa.
Kpodo-Tay explained that Armajaro has set up a dedicated team specialising in Traceability and Sustainability (T&S) across its commodity-chain.
“We consider that traceability is key to the long term success of any sustainability initiative and therefore we have invested in software systems and training to provide traceability for the projects we are involved in,” he said.
He added that in 2007 Armajaro successfully implemented a project to source traceable cocoa in Ghana.
So far, Armajaro, through its Cocoa Traceable Foundation, has invested over $2 million to improve water and sanitation, as well as education in the 52 communities it operates in.
The foundation, which seeks to improve the lot of local communities, has drilled over 150 boreholes to provide safe drinking water for beneficiary communities.
Kpodo-Tay noted that the company will continue to help farmers to spray their farms against cocoa diseases and pests which account for low productivity, whereas tree seedlings are planted on cocoa farms to help reverse the trend of deforestation.
“Our extensive presence in the key production origins enables us to help empower farmers by investing in and supporting training programmes and initiatives that assist growers to improve their profitability and working conditions.”
“As the company’s cotton operations grow in the North, it is expected that similar interventions will be possible,” he disclosed.
Armajaro Ghana trades with over 75,000 cocoa farmers’ cocoa around the western corridor, and employs about 1,500 people, delivering livelihoods to over 100,000 families in the rural areas.
On his part, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture in charge of Fisheries, Nii Amasa Namoale, thanked Armajaro for making the contribution, adding that the Ministry would make sure the farmers benefit to improve their farms and livelihoods.
By Ekow Quandzie
Happy for good effort .Its appreciated. But it looks like robbing Paul to pay Peter. The millions of cedis cocoa farmers loose annually due to scale adjustment can lift them out of poverty. Some Armajaro workers or/& the company itself are beneficiaries of this illegality. The happiness of cocoa farmers is incomplete unless scale adjustment is stopped.