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Ghana will no longer sell cocoa to Switzerland

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Re: Ghana will no longer sell cocoa to Switzerland

#181

Post by ReadFList »

Mat342 wrote: post #172
ReadFList wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>To begin with, a fledgling industry in a developing country cannot compete with those of already industrialized countries >these countries are also forced into a position where they get stuck at the low end of the production value chain, selling raw materials, while buying processed goods from others (often the same role they were forcibly assigned when they were colonies Basically what Friedrich List [1] wrote in 1…

Honestly I don't think americans can outcompete Japan, Korea Taiwan or China. Maybe they keep accepting fake printed USD for real stuff in the future

Lot's of people said the same about the USA becoming economically independent of the all powerful British Empire. And yet the USA did it.

Alexander Hamilton's influence goes way beyond inspiring a ridiculous musical for an attempt to capture that historical personality and distort his positions so nobody would read his writings.

There is a vast difference between not being possible, and the interlopers we call "the elites" not wanting to do it because they have other interests that don't overlap with the Nation's interests.

Re: Ghana will no longer sell cocoa to Switzerland

#182

Post by zymhan »

auiya wrote: post #166
prepend wrote: post #55

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 t…

There's a smoked chili pepper which I believe is native to the area that is labeled as "ghana pepper" for export, and is hard to find elsewhere. It is _incredible_.

AFAIK peppers are native to the Americas, I'm not sure there is a "native" African pepper. Though they certainly could have been cultivating them for 400-500 years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chili_pepper#Origins

Re: Ghana will no longer sell cocoa to Switzerland

#183

Post by ISL »

tyingq wrote: post #60

"With Ghana’s move towards processing its own cocoa, the world, and not just Switzerland, will experience a massive shortage since Ghana is responsible for about 45% of the world’s cocoa." That seems like bigger news than the headline.

It may encourage the major chocolate processors to build processing plants in Ghana.

This must be done with caution. Crashing the internal chocolate price will hurt Ghanaian farmers in the short term even as the country attempts to negotiate the country to a better place.

"Governing a country is like frying a small fish" -- Tao te Ching 60

Re: Ghana will no longer sell cocoa to Switzerland

#184

Post by enriquto »

flavius29663 wrote: post #154
enriquto wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So much like we allow children time to learn in school before we expect them to compete in the job market, we should allow developing countries to employ protectionistic policies This sounds a bit paternalistic and condescending. I guess that first and foremost the "first world" should stop financing horrible dictatorships and wars in the ex-colonies. That would be a good, honest start.

> should stop financing horrible dictatorships When you do that and even take down the dictator (Gadafi), you end up with a worse government, or no government at all. We can all agree Saddam Hussein was a horrible dictator supported by the US, look at Iraq now, is it better off without Saddam? There is no clear cut, and it seems like whatever the west is doing or abstaining from doing it's going to attract hate. We a…

I suppose you are being sarcastic. In that case I agree with you.

Re: Ghana will no longer sell cocoa to Switzerland

#185

Post by JoeAltmaier »

tyingq wrote: post #60

"With Ghana’s move towards processing its own cocoa, the world, and not just Switzerland, will experience a massive shortage since Ghana is responsible for about 45% of the world’s cocoa." That seems like bigger news than the headline.

My local shop got its chocolate from Honduras and Nicaragua. They visited the farms and arranged to have the beans processed there. Meant they could import a liquid and not an agricultural product. So it didn't have to be fumigated. A big win.

Re: Ghana will no longer sell cocoa to Switzerland

#187

Post by kzrdude »

hanche wrote: post #115
prepend wrote: post #55

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 t…

I satisfy my chocolate cravings with chocolate from fairafric now. Chocolate produced all the way from the tree to packaged chocolate bars in Ghana. They ran a couple kickstarter projects to get going. It's excellent chocolate too! At least the dark variants, which are the only ones I care about. https://fairafric.com/en/home/

Very cool. Just note (since it's on topic here) that their team is mostly German, not from Ghana https://fairafric.com/team/

Re: Ghana will no longer sell cocoa to Switzerland

#188

Post by exhilaration »

zymhan wrote: post #182
auiya wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a smoked chili pepper which I believe is native to the area that is labeled as "ghana pepper" for export, and is hard to find elsewhere. It is _incredible_.

AFAIK peppers are native to the Americas, I'm not sure there is a "native" African pepper. Though they certainly could have been cultivating them for 400-500 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chili_pepper#Origins

Thanks, another item to add to my list: corn, tomatoes, potatoes, and peppers. All are now staples worldwide but were unknown outside of the Americas until ~500 years ago.

Re: Ghana will no longer sell cocoa to Switzerland

#189

Post by ISL »

ArkanExplorer wrote: post #95
fogihujy wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first response will probably be for the chocolate producers to try to source the raw materials from other sources. This may or may not result in production ramping up elsewhere, or even new producers appearing as increased prices could make production financially viable in places it previously wasn't. Depending on how the markets react, prices may go up, and many of the really cheap brands could disappear from th…

CO2 tariffs: https://www.bcg.com/publications/2020/how-an-eu-carbon-borde... Ghana's electricity supply is 51% fossil fuel, whereas Switzerland is 2.5%. But its a lot easier to build solar plants in Accra than in Bern... I think that Europe is at a fundamental disadvantage over the medium/long-term, due to the burden of its welfare states. Its surprising to see that taxes over basically all categories are lower in Gh…

My experience with corruption in Ghana suggests that the Swiss have some other key advantages. It is impossible to imagine a swiss policeman stopping every third car on the country's main highway and asking, "Where's my Christmas?"

That said, the potential for Ghanaians to thrive is astounding. Incremental improvements will yield incremental gains. It is a tropical paradise emerging from the weight of poverty.

Also, the mangoes are hands-down the finest I have ever tasted.

Re: Ghana will no longer sell cocoa to Switzerland

#190

Post by dahfizz »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #128
dahfizz wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the USA is not-allowing Germany the right to build a pipeline with Russia! The USA is threatening trade sanctions if Germany builds the pipeline. I would not call that "not-allowing". That seems to be OP's whole point. The US is responding as a sovereign nation to actions of other sovereign nations. Phraseology like "allow" and "disallow" are not accurate. If Germany does the cost-benefit analysis and decides to ca…

The law is threatening fines if you exceed the speed limit. By that logic. Are allowed to break the law? Are you not?

My landlord raised my rent this year. Are they not allowing me to live in my apartment?
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