The Chief Executive of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Dr. Randy Abbey, and Switzerland’s Ambassador to Ghana, Benin and Togo, H.E. Simone Giger, have visited KOA Impact’s processing facility at Achiase in the Eastern Region to assess the company’s work in extracting cocoa sweatings for juice production, a value-addition process generating new income streams for cocoa farmers.
The visit centred on discussions to strengthen collaboration between COCOBOD and the Swiss-founded company with the goal of scaling the initiative across Ghana’s cocoa-growing regions. It forms part of the government’s broader directive to deepen value addition within the cocoa sector as Ghana works to move beyond the raw bean export model.
KOA Impact, which opened its second and larger factory at Akim Achiase in August 2023, works directly with smallholder cocoa farmers to extract the fruit pulp before fermentation, a process that creates an additional revenue source without disrupting the bean drying process. Farmers have confirmed that the extraction takes place before drying, allowing normal fermentation to continue afterwards.
Dr. Abbey expressed strong support for the initiative, noting that it broadens farmer awareness of cocoa’s full commercial potential, from juice and health applications to cosmetics and chocolate, while providing supplementary income. He stressed that any value addition process must not compromise the quality of Ghana’s cocoa beans, which remain a competitive differentiator on the international market.
“Ghana’s cocoa quality gives us a competitive advantage on the international market. Therefore, all processes must be carefully managed to preserve this standard,” he said.
KOA Impact Chief Executive Anian Schreiber assured that the juice extraction process does not affect bean quality, attributing consistent output standards to the company’s farmer training programme. The programme covers good agricultural practices, proper fermentation techniques, and climate resilience measures, including composting and compliance with COCOBOD’s recommendation of 18 to 20 shade trees per hectare.
Mr. Schreiber also revealed plans to expand operations into additional cocoa-growing regions and reaffirmed the company’s commitment to organic cocoa cultivation and dynamic agroforestry systems to ensure long-term environmental and economic benefits for farming communities.
KOA Impact, which began operations in 2017, has built a model around upcycling the cocoa fruit to reduce waste and provide smallholder farmers with income that supplements their bean sales, while creating rural employment. The company has previously partnered with French premium chocolate manufacturer Valrhona to develop cocoa fruit concentrate products for the global food service industry.
The delegation toured the Achiase processing facility as part of the engagement, which underscores growing industry interest in unlocking the full cocoa value chain at the farm level.
