Niche Cocoa to produce chocolate for Ghana market

Niche Cocoa Industry Limited, an ISO 22000 certified and wholly owned Ghanaian company will commence production of chocolate for the Ghanaian market this year.

This revelation was made at a ceremony that saw Niche Cocoa join the league of internationally certified food and beverage companies in Ghana.

Speaking at a ceremony in Accra, the Managing Director of Niche Cocoa Industry Limited, Mr Edmund A. Poku revealed that, within the next three months, Niche will be producing industrial bulk chocolate for the local market in addition to natural and deodorized cocoa butter, natural and alkalized cocoa cake all from Ghana cocoa beans.

Mr Poku said, the certification will create international market access for Niche Cocoa and it shows that the company is processing according to international standards.

Presenting the certificate to Niche, the Certification Manager of SGS, Gauri Bhagwat commended Niche for going through the process within a short space of time and describes it as an achievement.

On his part, Mr Frederick Gyamera-Owusu, an International Expert in Quality Management Systems, a representative of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) says the eighteen months period the company took to get certified is a real feat and the first among the African countries selected to benefit from the West Africa Quality Programme. The programme which is supported by UNIDO is to enable companies within Africa which meet certain criteria acquire international certification partly funded by UNIDO.

Presently the company produces high quality natural and organic cocoa liquor to customer specifications.
Niche has two processing plants-Niche Liquor and Niche Press and Confectionery Plants.

By Pascal Kelvin Kudiabor