Ghana largest cocoa buyer posts net loss of GH¢25.4m

Ghana’s largest cocoa buyer, Produce Buying Company (PBC), posted a net loss of GH¢25.4 million in the 2013/14 financial year as compared to the previous year of GH¢8.8 million.

The company, which buys about 35.3 percent of Ghana’s total annual cocoa output, attributed the loss to the declining commodity prices on the world market and high inflation in the country.

“High inflation, interest rates, and continuous reliance on borrowings from the market to supplement funds for cocoa purchases, as some of the factors which had made things difficult for the company,” according to the Managing Director, Kojo Atta-Krah at the company’s annual general meeting in Ghana’s capital, Accra.

“It is worth to note that in the year under review, the company spent about 55.3 per cent of its gross earnings in servicing financial cost,” he said.

He explained that in spite of these challenges, the company would continue to manage the current situation with right strategies to bring the company back on track for sustained profitability.

Ghana is the world’s second biggest cocoa producer after Ivory Coast.

By Ray Pollera