French company Touton Group announced Friday it will commence cocoa processing in Ghana.
This followed the acquisition of the 24,000 metric-ton capacity Commodities Processing Industries (CPI) in the Free Zones enclave of Kpone, near Tema, 38 km east of the capital Accra.
The company’s capacity, he said, would be further enhanced to 60,000 metric tons in five years to ensure that production increased to meet market demands.
CPI Ltd started operations in 2007 and quickly became one of the largest manufacturers of cocoa-derived foods, with a capacity to process 25,000 metric tons of cocoa per annum.
De Boussac said the decision to invest in Ghana was based on the fact that Touton had been buying cocoa from Ghana and found its cocoa to be of the highest premium in the world.
Touton acquired CPI at 18 million U.S. dollars and plans to commit 80 million dollars annually into cocoa purchases and processing. The company currently employs 150 workers, which it inherited from CPI but hopes to increase the work force along with expanded capacity.
Touton has its chocolate base in Bordeaux, France and the coffee base in Geneva while Singapore acts as the link to Asia and China.
Over the past years, the French company has been purchasing at least 100,000 metric tons of cocoa from Ghana annually.
Since the investment is in a Free Zones enclave, Touton says it will export 100 percent of its processed cocoa to markets in the United States, European Union, Asia and the Middle East.
Ghana is the world’s second largest producer of cocoa after its western neighbor Cote d’Ivoire. Enditem
Source; Xinhua
