Cocoa Research Institute Of Ghana

Ghana is ranked the best premium quality cocoa beans provider in the world to support the chocolate industry. Key criteria for assessment of cocoa quality include flavour quality. This parameter is mainly attained through proper handling of the harvest and post-harvest processes developed by CRIG, which consist of harvesting, pod breaking, fermentation, drying and storage. Education and sensitization on harvest and post-harvest handling by CHED as well as quality assessment by QCC has generally not included flavour quality.

The rich, intense and unique chocolate flavor that characterizes Ghana’s premium quality cocoa could be lost over time. Under the WFC/ACI Ghana Quality Innovations (GQI) sub-grant project, a cocoa flavour laboratory and a sensory evaluation panel have been established at CRIG with the mandate of developing technological packages and training of relevant stakeholders to improve flavourquality at the farm level. 494 CHED Extension staff have been given initial training to enable them educate and train cocoa farmers on effect of harvest and post-harvest handling on cocoa flavour development. Further efforts are being made to integrate sensory evaluation into research and breeding programs and to promote sensory evaluation of cocoa in the Ghanaian cocoa sector.