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Ghana will no longer sell cocoa to Switzerland

face2faceafrica.com

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Re: Ghana will no longer sell cocoa to Switzerland

#51

Post by smolder »

DSingularity wrote: post #37
oblio wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So the book argues that when developing countries are pressured into free trade agreements This should have been obvious since the Opium Wars and the Opening of Japan (see Commodore Matthew Perry). All developed countries are pro free trade for markets where they are strong and fiercely protectionist where they are not (or they consider those markets strategic priorities). I'm from Romania. Romania joined the EU in…

WW3 was fought with soft power and economics. Now some countries own other countries and nobody is complaining.

I hear quite a lot of complaints from all sorts of people about their economic victimhood. I've got complaints myself about what global economics are doing for our prospects as a species.

Re: Ghana will no longer sell cocoa to Switzerland

#52

Post by fogihujy »

unwind wrote: post #35
bsanr2 wrote: post #19

This is similar to the situation with Global South coffee exports, wherein actual growers only receive a fraction of the revenue from consumer sales (despite the relatively cheap and easy value-add of roasting or conversion into instant coffee) because of logistical concerns, and because Europeans and American just plain do not buy African roast coffee when it appears on their shelves. If these countries were to deci…

This is a pretty minor point, but any proper coffee geek will tell you that the shelf life of roasted coffee is pretty bad. Thus it makes sense to roast closer to the time when the coffee is made available for sale; shipping from African countries up to Europe, would increase the "latency" a great deal. I'm sure modern packaging gives a decent shelf life, and TBH I don't worry much about the use-before label on coffe…

Not to mention that many prefer one specific blend. If you want me to buy another brand/blend then you first have to convince me that the new one is at least as delicious as the previous one.

Re: Ghana will no longer sell cocoa to Switzerland

#53

Post by pydry »

edflsafoiewq wrote: post #36
ClumsyPilot wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"we should allow developing countries" Not to pick on you, but I often hear this frasing in the 'first world' and surely you dont 'allow' or 'disallow' internal policies to an sovereign nation? It sounds like a Freudianslip or something, the reality is that its easy to bully or bribe officials in developing nations.

Free trade is usually done on a tit-for-tat basis. I think the GP is saying they should allow protectionist policies without "tatting".

This is effectively how the US built up the industries of Japan, Taiwan and South Korea.

The reason these countries were allowed to do it where others are not was because the US wanted strategically placed powerful allies in the region.

There probably wouldn't be a Japanese electronics/car industry, for instance, if the Soviets hadn't spooked the the US in the 40s.

Re: Ghana will no longer sell cocoa to Switzerland

#54

Post by dgellow »

I'm not sure I follow the argument. Surely Ghana could sell some cocoa to Switzerland, while at the same time building their own chocolate brands. Maybe reduce your export, but keep a strong influx of money and at the same time invest in your own line of products.

Re: Ghana will no longer sell cocoa to Switzerland

#55

Post by prepend »

I think it’s good to see raw producers start working up market to make their own chocolate. I think a Ghanaian chocolate brand actually owned by Ghanaians and made for export would market very well.

It’s interesting to me how much tasty and interesting stuff in Africa has not been marketed internationally and there’s lots of room for them to grow and develop.

For example, fonio [0], is a grain native to west Africa that I’ve never seen in the US but was eaten every day when I was there, as common as rice. It’s gluten-free and could be the next quinoa and a great opportunity to develop a new brand and export finished products rather than just commodities.

One of the big opportunities of all this digitization, I think, is that it’s now easier for remote locations to get more value out of their commodities than just exporting raw and having someone else add most of the value.

I’m surprised the Swiss aren’t trying to do more joint ventures to develop chocolate making capabilities in Ghana.

Re: Ghana will no longer sell cocoa to Switzerland

#56

Post by TeMPOraL »

jariel wrote: post #24
m12k wrote: post #15

I'm reading the book The Divide at the moment. It makes the argument that it takes time and the right conditions to build up an industry - infrastructure needs to be built, education and a skilled labor pool with the necessary know-how as well. To begin with, a fledgling industry in a developing country cannot compete with those of already industrialized countries - these are already so effective that they can underc…

So Saudi Arabia, UAE, Canada and Saudi Arabia are 'stuck' selling natural resources? I think it's probably a much better plant to extract a good deal of wealth from the natural resource and invest it in other areas of higher value creation, even in the same vertical. There's a good chance that Ghana's policies are needlessly constrained. More obviously there are 100 things Ghana could do to improve living conditions…

Other points are already addressed in different comments, but to address this one:

> Ghana doesn't have all of the layers of industry necessary to support development and export of products i.e. there are no market buyers at any reasonable price.

Per the article, they literally control half of the world's cocoa. This means they get to define what "a reasonable price" is, as long as the rest of the world wants to keep its chocolate plentiful.

I'm not a politician or economist - but to me, it seems obvious the plan here is to bootstrap domestic cocoa processing industries, get the current exporters to sell cocoa to domestic producers, and export processed products (like chocolate). They're not going to just stop cultivating cocoa - being in control of half of the supply of raw materials for a highly prized product is their one big leverage on the international market.

As to not having the necessary industry base to pull it off - the question is, how fast can they build one? I'd guess a couple of years, if no foreign powers try to make it hard for them.

Re: Ghana will no longer sell cocoa to Switzerland

#57

Post by throwaway210222 »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #20
m12k wrote: post #15

I'm reading the book The Divide at the moment. It makes the argument that it takes time and the right conditions to build up an industry - infrastructure needs to be built, education and a skilled labor pool with the necessary know-how as well. To begin with, a fledgling industry in a developing country cannot compete with those of already industrialized countries - these are already so effective that they can underc…

>"we should allow developing countries" Not to pick on you, but I often hear this frasing in the 'first world' and surely you dont 'allow' or 'disallow' internal policies to an sovereign nation? It sounds like a Freudianslip or something, the reality is that its easy to bully or bribe officials in developing nations.

"I often hear this [phrasing] in the 'first world' and surely you don't 'allow' or 'disallow' internal policies to an sovereign nation?"

Forget about the third-world, right now the USA is not-allowing Germany the right to build a pipeline with Russia!

First-world - check, sovereign - check, allies - check.

Re: Ghana will no longer sell cocoa to Switzerland

#58

Post by jfim »

msg3 wrote: post #29
jariel wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So Saudi Arabia, UAE, Canada and Saudi Arabia are 'stuck' selling natural resources? I think it's probably a much better plant to extract a good deal of wealth from the natural resource and invest it in other areas of higher value creation, even in the same vertical. There's a good chance that Ghana's policies are needlessly constrained. More obviously there are 100 things Ghana could do to improve living conditions…

By itself, it's probably not a good idea. If the government supports the development of a chocolate production industry, including support for cocoa exporters, then it has every chance of success.

It might, and it might not. Even though Japan also makes some fine watch movements, Swiss ones command a premium over the Japanese ones. I'd assume that this would be similar for chocolate.

Re: Ghana will no longer sell cocoa to Switzerland

#59

Post by arethuza »

m12k wrote: post #43
luckylion wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So Saudi Arabia, UAE, Canada and Saudi Arabia are 'stuck' selling natural resources? Canada maybe not so much, but Saudi Arabia and the UAE? Yeah, and I think they understand that as well. If we have a fusion breakthrough next year, what will Saudi Arabia export besides Wahhabism?

The Saudi royal family is busy buying as much of Silicon Valley as they can, to ensure they can still live atop a mountain of cash once the oil runs out. As for the rest of the country - yeah, they are royally fucked (pun intended) since no other industry than oil was ever developed.

They seem to be trying to develop their tourist industry - I keep getting adverts for holidays there!
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