Quality Control Division

The International Cocoa Standards require cocoa of merchantable quality to be fermented, thoroughly dried, free from smoky beans, free from abnormal or foreign odour and free from any evidence of adulteration. It must be reasonably free from living insects, broken beans, fragments and pieces must be seasonably uniform in size.

Throughout the world the standard against which all cocoa is measured is that of Ghana’s cocoa which has high content of theobromine, thus making it the best cocoa for high quality chocolates. Cocoa from Ghana continues to enjoy high premium on the World’s Commodities Markets because of its unsurpassable high quality. The high quality cocoa beans, still continues as the preferred choice of all chocolate and beverage producers of high reputation and distinction. This status has been diligently maintained, over the years, through the effective quality control practices of the Quality Control Division (QCD) of COCOBOD.

QCD is responsible for maintaining the quality of cocoa and other exportable crops such as coffee and sheanut. To achieve its objective of ensuring the maintenance of the high quality of the country’s produce, various activities are carried out by the Division.

An infestation Control Department of the Ghana Cocoa Board originally existed as a private commercial enterprise, known as the Pest Destruction Company, which was contracted by the then Cocoa Marketing Board (CMB) to disinfest its produce. In April, 1959 the Company was absorbed by the CMB as its Insect Control Unit. A Stored Products Entomology Unit was established in 1965 with a Stored Products expert Mr John Rawnsley, as its head to undertake research into the activities of the Insect Control Unit. The two units were merged to form the Infestation Control Department (ICD) of the COCOBOD. In 1975 the ICD was transferred to merge with the Produce Inspection Division (PID) which had been absorbed by the COCOBOD from the Ministry of Agriculture three years earlier, since the functions of the two units had a common objective of ensuring the export of the best quality cocoa. The name PID was retained for the new Division. However, as a result of the incompatibility of the staff of the two units at the time, this first merger lasted only for four years, with the ICD reverting to the COCOBOD Head Office in late 1979.