A package of cocoa treats

When Kwaku texted me in January that he had sent a package from Switzerland to me in Ghana, my thoughts ran wild about what exactly the parcel would contain. I thought maybe it was to make up for a missed birthday present; then again, it might be something for Christmas or New Year. Whatever it was, he said it was going to take at least 15 working days to arrive in Ghana.

For reasons still unknown, the package never arrived in January. In fact, at some point we had both given up hope on it as several calls to the postal service hadn’t helped. Apparently, although it was sent by priority mail, there was no tracking number.

Maybe it was a coincidence, or just plain serendipity, but one bright Tuesday morning, two days after Ghana’s Chocolate Day, which coincides with the global Valentine’s Day celebration, I walked into the office to find a white envelope sitting on my desk with my name on it.

I realised at once that it was the long-awaited package from Kwaku because I could see the sender’s details on one corner of the envelope. After settling in, I opened the package, obviously keen to find out what it contained.

I must say, this was probably the most thoughtful gift anyone has ever sent me. Or was it? Maybe it was more of a message than a gift. The envelope contained two 100-gram packs of Ritter Sport brand chocolates with a bold inscription in Italian that read “81% L’extra Intenso Con Cacao Dal Ghana”, meaning “81% extra-intense with cocoa from Ghana”.

Along with the two packs of chocolate were two cards, one a SwissPost postcard and the other a handwritten note from Kwaku, bearing the bold inscription “The Year of Return Returns”. But that was not all: the note further described the bars as “Chocolate that was produced in Ghana, manufactured in Germany, sold in Italy, smuggled into Switzerland only to be mailed back to Ghana”.

At that moment I could feel the strong resentment Kwaku must have felt when he chanced on those bars of chocolate in Switzerland. I remembered how, at the end of January, when I told him that the package had never arrived, he said that if it had gone missing in the mail, that was no problem, as it was nothing really expensive but something he had chanced upon and really wanted to share with me.

You see, like many diasporans, Kwaku has always been passionate about promoting Ghana and growing the motherland. We met through a UN in-country project for Ghana’s human rights review in 2017 and have been friends since. His PhD work has revolved around social problems in Ghana, hence his regular visits to Ghana from Switzerland.

So, I understood his sentiment. Ghanaians for long have slept on the very resources that have provided building blocks for many economies around the world. For instance, while Ghana is the second largest producer of cocoa and produces the best premium cocoa in the world, annual per-capita consumption of cocoa products such as chocolate is reported to be just 0.5 kilos. In fact, for many Ghanaians, theirs is a case of the proverbial man who lives by the seaside yet washes his hands with spittle.

Kwaku is not the only one who feels this has to change. Many Ghanaians are rising to the occasion, with local manufacturers such as Niche, Bioko Treats and Golden Tree trying to bridge the gap in locally made premium chocolate products for both domestic consumption and export.

For the first time, the Government of Ghana has stepped up to the challenge and taken its response a notch higher by introducing Ghana Chocolate Week. This event started in the second week of February and ended on 14 February with National Chocolate Day. Ghana Chocolate Week is expected to become an annual affair. The government’s aim is to encourage local consumption of made-in-Ghana chocolate as well as increase the state’s control over the cocoa value chain.

As I take a bite of one of the bars, I can’t really tell much of a difference between this and the made-in-Ghana ’57 Chocolate brand. So, I ask; why the fuss about foreign-made chocolates when the best is right here in Ghana?

 Solomon Ter Akumun

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