GHANA – The Coffee Federation of Ghana (CFG) has embarked on efforts that seek to revitalise the coffee industry in the country by rolling out initiatives aimed at increasing production of the commodity.

As one of its mandates to support all aspects of the coffee value chain in Ghana through advocacy and networking, CFG has unveiled plans of developing a strong data base in the value chain which will serve as a guide and reference point for players in the industry.

According to Samuel Adimado, vice president of the Coffee Federation of Ghana, the initiative presents a strong opportunity of attracting the needed investment required for the future of the coffee industry in the country.

CFG has partnered the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) in mapping out farmers potentials, highly coffee productive regions, identifying hybrid planting materials as well as warehouse locations that will help strengthen the sector, GhanaWeb reports.

“We have started collating the data and we believe that it will help us to turn things around. Ghana used to do well in the coffee business and with the collapse of the global coffee market, we lost that position.

But now that the global coffee market is thriving, we have revamp our industry to attract the needed investment,” Mr Adimado said.

Through the partnership, the bodies also seek to develop guidelines that will assist in regulating activities in the industry as well as developing a baseline assessment on coffee consumption in the country.

Mr. Adimado noted that this will help to formalise the sector, help to attract investments as well as improve on the quality of the commodity and eventually make coffee production more profitable as a diversified income strategy.

“What we want to amplify is that coffee should be a diversified option for farmers that want to go into coffee as an enterprise. So, we want to support coffee and champion it as a diversified income in the commodity arena. That is the idea behind CFG,” he elaborates.

The initiative has so far been backed by 20,000 farmers who have expressed interest in investing in coffee as a business, thus divesting their income from the predominantly cultivated cocoa crop.

CFG is also seeking partnership with potential agencies and organizations to in a bid to boost local consumption and demand for the commodity.

The efforts will improve to the continent’s coffee production which currently contributes about 10.8% of the world’s total volume.

However, available statistics reveal that the continent only consumes 3% of the total coffee produced domestically with Ethiopia as the leading coffee producer taking up 50% of the total volume of coffee produced locally.