From Oxford Business Group:

As one of Ghana’s main sources of export revenue and employment, cocoa is of critical importance to the economy. Production is expected to be relatively stable for the 2013/14 season, while rising prices worldwide should lead to revenue growth.

With the demand forecast still robust, the country is looking to improve the sustainability of harvest increases over the medium term through a number of supporting initiatives, although threats such as black pod disease are a concern.

Ghana, the world’s second-largest cocoa producer after Côte d’Ivoire, harvested around 835,000 tonnes of cocoa during the 2012/13 season, about 21% of the global total. For the 2013/14 season, which began in early October, the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), the industry regulator, has revised its target national cocoa production to 830,000 tonnes, down from 850,000 tonnes, due to low projected rainfall.

On September 20, COCOBOD signed a $1.2bn syndicated loan from a group of domestic and international banks for the purchase of cocoa beans over the course of the season. The loan was oversubscribed by just over two-thirds, as it was last year when COCOBOD borrowed $1.5bn.

Despite the mild drop in forecasts for the 2013/14 season, the government intends over the longer term to raise cocoa production to 1m tonnes per year. This would match the output level from the bumper crop of the 2010/11 season, which briefly made Ghana the world’s largest cocoa producer.

Read more at Oxford Business Group