Reputable International airline Goldstar Air is set to help transform Ghana’s cocoa industry to increase the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). The airline aims to partner with local processing companies to ensure that a significant portion of Ghana’s cocoa beans are processed locally into cocoa powder for export and local consumption.
The airline is committed to assisting and boosting the cocoa industry by making Golden Tree Chocolates a brand identity. Hot chocolate drinks and one compulsory chocolate bar as a dessert and souvenir will be served on board all our aircraft, generating more value, taste, brand, and revenue for the country.
Ghana, the world’s second-largest cocoa producer, has long relied on exporting raw cocoa beans, missing significant economic benefits. However, Goldstar Air will help change this narrative by providing the needed foreign exchange to back the initiative and a reliable efficient transportation solution for processed cocoa products.
The global chocolate industry is worth over One hundred and fifty billion dollars ($150B) and is expected to exceed One hundred and eighty billion dollars ($180B) by 2026, but the two leading West African producers of cocoa, including Ghana, receive less than $6 billion of this value. Therefore, the airline aims to foster collaboration with cocoa industry experts for chocolate manufacturing processes to produce more for export.
Goldstar Air’s effortless initiative to serve on board the finest premiere tasted Ghana’s Golden Tree chocolate, will automatically place value on the product and be in high demand in all duty-free shops worldwide. This will allow the product to tap more into the over One hundred and fifty billion dollars (150B) chocolate thresholds globally.
This will help the Cocoa Processing Company which has continued to face significant financial difficulties that are impacting the viability of the state-owned enterprise. In the first half of 2024, the company recorded a loss of $9,568,898 an increase from $9,155,700 in the same period in 2023. This represents a 4.5 percent surge in losses. The mounting losses at the company have been attributed to escalating operational costs, particularly in selling, distribution, and financial expenses. The production capacity of the CPC also declined during the period under review, as cocoa beans processed dropped to 2,886 metric tons from 6,614 metric tons in 2023.
The airline will enhance cargo movement across the continent under the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) initiative. The continent possesses the resources to make significant economic strides, and the Africa Continental Free Trade Area aims to eliminate trade barriers, representing a significant opportunity for Africa to assert itself on the global economic stage. Each year, more than 52 billion tons of cargo are shipped by air, creating a constant demand for industry jobs.
Value addition and industrialization are key to Ghana’s development, therefore Ghana’s export sector is being urged by the airline to devote all their efforts to adding value to their products and services to optimize gains in revenue generation. Cocoa futures traded in New York broke record after record yearly.
In Ghana, when we export raw cocoa beans, the country gains low returns, but when you add value to the product, the gains are higher than when you export the raw materials. This initiative by adding value to the products will bring more foreign exchange.
Creating a thriving agricultural sector across the country will bring more crops for transportation by air and create jobs for Goldstar Air cargo department and it is part of our one hundred thousand direct and one million indirect job opportunities for Ghanaians.
The airline will enhance the value of the crop which Ghana has a competitive advantage enhancing sustainability in the industry and overcoming critical challenges to ensure the prosperity of cocoa farmers and the longevity of Ghana’s cocoa sector.
Mr. Joseph Boahen Aidoo, the Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), during a media briefing on Tuesday 20 August 2024 announced a significant change in the financing strategy for the upcoming 2024/2025 cocoa crop season, after Thirty-two (32) years of relying on offshore borrowing to fund cocoa purchases through its cocoa syndication program, the company is now set to transition to self-financing to reduce its dependency on external funds and the expected benefits of this new approach, which includes an estimated savings of One hundred and fifty million dollars ($150M). But the Minister of Finance Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, has contradicted this assertions by the Ghana Cocoa Board regarding the self-financing of the upcoming cocoa crop season during the monthly economic updates held in Accra on Thursday, 29 August 2024.
Dr Amin Adams clarified that the government would depend on syndicated loans and other financial instruments rather than transitioning to self-financing as COCOBOD had previously announced. This shows that Ghana is in crisis.
According to the independent campaign and advocacy platform – comprising civil society actors in the cocoa sector including NGOs, farmer associations, and community organizations- the 2023/2024 cocoa season has been one of the most challenging in recent history. Production levels are expected to hover at just above 500,000 metric tonnes – the lowest in over two decades.
Goldstar Air’s support for the cocoa industry, Ghana’s cocoa is poised for transformational change and adding value to the raw cocoa beans. The airline’s 24/7 service support for local cocoa bean processing will have a positive impact on the country’s economy and a win-win situation for all stakeholders involved in seizing the export of raw cocoa beans.
According to the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Goldstar Air Eric Bannerman, the airline has been licensed by the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) to operate scheduled and non-scheduled flights to West Africa and Intercontinental and awaiting inspection of its aircraft. The airline will also soon initiate non-scheduled flights from international destinations to promote tourism and Hajj flights to and from all the country airports and give assistance to agencies and stakeholders of the cocoa industry.
Goldstar Air is committed to supporting cocoa farmers through fair pricing and innovative initiatives, such as a new cocoa swollen shoot virus detection kit aimed at safeguarding cocoa trees from disease. Collaborate in tackling challenges like the cocoa swollen shoot virus, which threatens cocoa production in Ghana. The airline will help find sustainable solutions to safeguard cocoa production against the challenges posed by such diseases.
Ghana could have made a lot of gains with its cocoa, considering the impact it has had on cocoa products across the globe but due to the illegal mining Ghana has had to suffer a decline in cocoa production.
The country seeks to limit some cocoa purchases for next season, a sign that severe shortages have plagued the market and sent future prices to a record high. The move to restrict some purchases signals there is concern the next crop in Ghana may not recover as significantly as some market watchers expect, even with favorable weather and timely supplies of pesticides and fertilizer.
Ghana now wants to determine how much of the next crop can be sold as specialty cocoa based on total production, and that the regulator will allocate beans equitably among buyers. Specialty cocoa beans include the ones with certification such as Fairtrade, UTZ, and Rainforest Alliance, along with traceable beans.
The country has had to postpone deliveries of at least 250,000 metric tons of cocoa to the 2024 -25 season that starts in October after production plunged. Ghana and its neighbor Ivory Coast, the world’s largest cocoa producer, have been battling the spread of shoot disease.
Ivory Coast expects its harvest in 2024-2025 to rebound to Two (2) million tons, from an estimated One million eight hundred (1.8) tons by the end of the current season, while Ghana sees production reaching Seven hundred thousand (700,000) tons from about 425,000 tons.
Mr. Bannerman emphasized that the airline is not just a means of transportation but an economic tool for the country, that will assist in building a systematic approach in the cocoa industry and would enhance value chain development, eliminating underlying causes of market underperformance. Through a collaborative approach in providing integrated solutions to the challenges facing the sector, there would be an increase in the contribution to socio-economic development. This holds the key to increasing profits and productivity and always making them sustainable by withstanding disruptions.
Destroying cocoa farms to pave the way for mining or logging should not be allowed, because cocoa plays an important role in the economic development of the country and it is one of the backbones of the economy once the central pillars are destroyed, it means the whole economy will collapse.
The washing and discharging of filth into the river bodies by the illegal miners is also affecting the channels of the rivers and if this continues for the next Ten (10) to Twenty (20) years our forest will turn to desert and water in Ghana is going to be a big challenge, the country may have to import water.
According to commodities broker Marex Group, recovery in cocoa production in the world’s largest growers, Ivory Coast and Ghana is set to put an end to a massive bean shortage that sent prices surging to a record this year.
Marex Group expects cocoa output will top supplies by Three hundred and three thousand (303,000) metric tons in the upcoming 2024-25 season that starts in October. That would mark the first year of surplus after three straight seasons of deficit.
Cocoa futures in New York have doubled in the past Twelve (12) months as supply shortages significantly drained global stockpiles. The rally has even drawn in famed energy trader Pierre Andurand, who recently stepped away from oil markets while sticking with a bullish outlook on cocoa.
Andurand Capital Management expects stockpiles held by both New York and London futures exchanges to run out by the end of the year and sees a cocoa production deficit of between Six hundred and fifty thousand (650,000) to Seven hundred thousand (700,000) tons this season, whiles Marex has pegged this season’s shortfall at Four hundred and seventy-five thousand (475,000) tons.
Marex forecasts that Cocoa demand is expected to be weak, after an expected slump this year in the cocoa grindings, the amount of beans processed by the industry should still only grow moderately even after the supply of beans improves next season.
The Cocoa Road Programme in Ghana by COCOBOD was initiated to address the transportation challenges faced in bringing Agro-inputs to cocoa farmers in their communities and in evacuating cocoa beans to Over Centers and it has been announced that it will no longer undertake the construction of cocoa roads across the country after the completion of ongoing ones.
In an address at the 50th Anniversary Celebration symposium of the Cocoa Clinic, the Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD said the policy will be scrapped following negotiations with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Still, the airline initiative will expand the industry to generate more revenue to sustain the policy.
The saying ‘Cocoa is Ghana; Ghana is Cocoa’ portrays the important role cocoa plays in the economy of Ghana, one of the largest cocoa-producing countries, supplying around 20% of the world’s cocoa. Cocoa is vital to the national economy, accounting for 15% of GDP and employing approximately 800,000 farm families spread over six of the sixteen regions of Ghana.
The crop generates about $2 billion in foreign exchange annually for Ghana. It is a priceless contributor to government revenue and GDP. In 2021, in real terms, the contribution of cocoa to GDP was GHS3.1 billion, or around 533 million U.S. dollars. In the 2020–2021 crop season, a little over one million metric tons of cocoa beans were produced in Ghana. What is pertaining now is not enough. Therefore, Goldstar Air will boost this growth by assisting the farmers and processing Ghana’s cocoa beans locally.
The airline’s commitment to support Ghana’s cocoa industry aligns with its 24-hour service Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) to help the cocoa farmers and expects the farmer to be on the farm 24/7 to produce more beans and tap more into the One hundred and fifty billion dollars ($150B) global chocolate income.
Tamale will serve as a pivotal hub for our airline’s maintenance base, cargo, and training school and plans are underway to operate international flights to and from the Sahel region and Hajj flights to and from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Ho viability will be an economic generator for the region. Hajj flights to and from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and charter flights will open more doors for the Volta region.
Wa will be experiencing charter flights from the rural and smaller communities connecting global cities which will help businesses in the area expand and attract new companies and Hajj flights to and from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Goldstar Air will initially operate flights from Kumasi to Rome, Madrid, Hamburg, London, Dusseldorf, and Milan and Hajj flights to and from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Also, flights from Accra shall include destinations such as Washington, Dubai, Lagos, Toronto, Monrovia, Conakry, Abidjan, Guangzhou, Dakar, Banjul, Rhode Island, London, and Freetown and pending cities such as Miami-Florida, Atlanta-Georgia, Chicago-Illinois, Glasgow-Scotland, Houston-Texas and many more.
