Commercialise activities of Cocoa Research Institute

THE New Product and Development Department of the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) has appealed to the government to allow the commercialisation of its activities to attract foreign exchange into the country.
That, the department believes, can attract some funds which CRIG will invest in more research, since government funding of the institute is not enough.
The Commercial Manager of CRIG, Mr William Agyapong Quaitteo, made the appeal at the end of a three-day seminar organised by Centuries International as part of events to mark this year’s National Chocolate Day and the Chocolate Festival due in September this year.
“The problem is how to convince the government that it is viable to commercialise our activities because though we do not pay tax as a research institution, we can make money to research into other products,” he stated.
He said its products were well researched into by top scientists and that from proven results it could make money by commercialising its activities to attract consumers internally and externally.
According to him, the products of CRIG had been certified by the Ghana Standards Board (GSB) and all the regulatory bodies in the country but added that government policies, supervised by the Ministry of Finance, did not permit the institute to commercialise its activities.
Mr Quaitteo said the policies stipulated that it should rather research and create the products for private businessmen to invest in and market the products.
Some of its research, he said, concentrated on the use of the by-products of cocoa beans, saying, for instance, that the liquid from cocoa could be processed into fresh cocoa drink, cocoa wine, cocoa brandy, cocoa jam, gin and vinegar, adding that these could be commercialised.
He said the Institute had also produced soap and pomade from cocoa which had been found to be effective for the treatment of stretch marks and wrinkles if applied in moderation.
“Cocoa products have a moisture effect on the skin and do not allow wrinkles to form on the skin. The fat from cocoa has a milder effect on the skin,” he indicated.
Aside from these, he said CRIG, which had three cocoa farms, also offered consultancy services to farmers on what varieties of cocoa to cultivate on their land and also researched into crops such as coffee, cola and cashew.