The Deputy CEO of the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA), Samuel Dentu, has made a strong case for international exhibitions to profit from the billion-dollar markets abroad.
Tasked with diversification and value-addition of Ghana’s exports, GEPA has pursued several strategies, including yearly exhibitions in different countries globally.
With a strong contingent of small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) and other stakeholders in the cocoa sector, GEPA led a team to participate in the 2023 Salon du Chocolat in France.
The Salon du Chocolat is a yearly trade fair for the international chocolate industry.
Over 500 chocolatiers, pastry chefs, confectioners, cocoa producers, major brands, and food bloggers across the globe converged on Paris for this year’s event.
For GEPA it presents a platform for intense branding and marketing of Ghana’s premium cocoa processed into semi-finished and final products for foreign exchange.
“It is through these that products from Ghana find their way on shelves and spaces all across the world,” Mr Dentu explained in an interview in France.
He continued: “What we do is to buy the space in the show, for instance, this show, Salon De Chocolat, we paid quite some amount of money to acquire this space that you see, and then we mobilized chocolatiers, just like any other shows, it could be fruits, textiles, medicinal products and any SMEs that we are nurturing to play within the world market. So, we bring them for free, pay for the freighting of their exhibits, and all they are supposed to take care of is their flight and accommodation. That is a huge support that the government is giving to our SMEs to participate in the world market”.
Ghana is the global leader in producing the highest-quality cocoa, and together with Côte d’Ivoire, the two West African countries account for 70% of the entire international cocoa output.
Yet, the two countries earn a paltry revenue of about 4 percent of the industry’s wealth of about US$ 150 billion because most of their beans are exported in the raw state.
Mr Dentu believes “Ghana must change the narrative about exporting raw materials” to processed and finished products. The Salon De Chocolat “is one of the flagship programmes where we get investors, consumers, and companies to develop an interest in the products from Ghana”.
Meanwhile, Mr Dentu is confident of increased revenue from exports to US$ 4.3 million by the end of 2023.
He said GEPA is committed to achieving the revenue target of US$25.3 billion by 2029, as outlined in the National Export Development Strategy launched in 2020.
“Within the cocoa value chain sector, we also hope to see some good traction. Everything culminating together, we are hoping that from the non-traditional export point of view, we are hoping to rake in US$ 4.3 million. Last year was US$ 3.6 million,” he noted.
Consequently, he appealed for the needed support from all stakeholders to ensure that Ghana takes its position in the world to translate into higher revenue for Ghana’s development.