This year’s celebration of National Chocolate Day was yesterday launched in Accra with the introduction of two competitions aimed to publicise made-in -Ghana chocolates and cocoa-inspired artworks.
In the first contest, participants are required to post pictures of themselves on social media enjoying chocolate with the hastag; ‘#MyChocolateExperience’, ‘#ChocolateDay2020’ and #EatGhana and tag the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA).
For the ‘Cocoa Art’ competition, starting on February 10, 2020, artists would submit paintings inspired by the cocoa industry to the Accra Tourism Information Centre.
The Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts instituted the National Chocolate Day in 2005 to coincide with Valentine’s Day and promote the consumption of Made-in-Ghana chocolates and other cocoa-based products.
This year’s celebration is on the theme, "My chocolate experience, my holistic wellbeing."
The Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Mrs Barbara Oteng Gyasi, in a speech read for her by the Board Chairperson of the Ghana Tourists Authority, Mrs Adelaide Ahwireng said winners of the competition would be awarded on February 14, 2020.
The minister said as part of the celebration, an event dubbed ‘My Chocolate Experience’ would be held on February 12, 2020, where cocoa products would be shared to patients and staff at the Cocoa Clinic.
"The National Chocolate Day is meant to position cocoa and chocolate experience as a strong element of the Ghana Tourism experience", the minster added.
As part of boosting the consumption of cocoa products, Mr Nana Agyemang Ansong, Marketing Manager of the Cocoa Processing Company (CPC) stated that 600 senior high schools had benefited from the Chocolate Breakfast Programme.
He said that plans had been made for basic schools to benefit from this programme.
Mr Ansong stressed that the programme was not politically attached for any other political party to come and alter the policy when elected into office.In order to reduce the prices of chocolates in the country, Mr Michael Owusu-Manu, Acting Deputy Director for Monitoring and Evaluation for Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), advised Ghanaians to patronise more cocoa products.This, he noted, would aid in reducing the cost of cocoa products as every Ghanaian consumed less than a kilo of cocoa products on an average per year.Preservatives and other packaging materials, he said, were some of the factors that constituted the high cost of the products.