The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has begun a roadshow in Europe to raise about US$1.3 billion dollars for the 2022/2023 cocoa crop season, a move that will bring inflows of dollars into the economy to slow down the depreciation of the cedi.

A statement from the organization said the Light Cocoa Crop Season, will end on Thursday September 8, 2022.

The announcement kick-starts the preparation for the main crop season.

The main crop season, which starts from October to May is the period within which the regulator buys most of the cocoa beans from farmers for export.

The light crop season, which concludes the crop season, is used to mainly to supply cocoa beans to local processors.

The statement added that “in order to assist the Licensed Buying Companies (LBC’s) to obtain the final returns from up-country centres, Ghana Cocoa Board has decided that returns on the declared purchases will be accepted up to 4:00 pm on Thursday, 15th September 2022″.

A team from COCOBOD, Bank of Ghana, and the Ministry of Finance are currently on a roadshow in the U.K as part of preparations to raise about 1.3 billion dollars for the next season.

The funds, which will be used to purchase cocoa beans for the 2022/2023 crop season is also expected to boost dollar supply to the economy to reduce the exchange rate pressures on the cedi.