Cocoa

There is no need here to dilate on the importance to Ghana of the cocoa industry nor on the importance of Ghana’s cocoa to the rest of the world. As a contributor to the Gross Domestic Product cocoa is the most important product of the economy; in the years 1955-61 it accounted for an average of 13-7 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product at constant prices. 1 The Marketing Board payments to the cocoa farmers represent a substantial, although fluctuating, part of total private incomes; payments to cocoa farmers from 1954-5 to 1961-2 were an average of 8 - 6 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product at current prices. Taxes on cocoa are a major source of government revenue. Between a half and two-thirds of Ghana’s export earnings come from the sale of cocoa. 2 Consumers of cocoa are scarcely less dependent on Ghana’s output, for she is, and has been for many years, the world’s major producing country.