Ghana’s Cocoa Harvest Heads for a Third Straight Year of Declines

Industry regulator Ghana Cocoa Board is negotiating with bean traders including Olam Group Ltd. and Barrry Callebaut AG to raise at least a third of the $1.5 billion it wants to borrow. This comes as it faces delays in concluding an annual syndicated loan from its usual lenders amid uncertainty over crop output. This is the second consecutive season that the world’s second-biggest grower of the key ingredient in chocolate has turned to dealers in the beans for funding because it failed to arrange the annual syndicated loan in time. The board relies on the facility to pay for seedlings, chemicals, fertilizers and to buy beans from farmers, while the foreign exchange helps the central bank keep the nation’s currency stable.

BLOOMBERG