Title: Analysis of Ghana's cocoa value chain towards services and standards for stakeholders

Authors: David Asamoah; Jonathan Annan

Addresses: Department of Information Systems and Decision Sciences, KNUST School of Business, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology, PMB Kumasi, Ghana. ' Department of Information Systems and Decision Sciences, KNUST School of Business, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology, PMB Kumasi, Ghana

Abstract: The cocoa sector in Ghana is of strategic importance to the socio-economic development of the nation. Cocoa has been described as the backbone of Ghana's economy. Finding appropriate solutions to the challenges facing the cocoa industry will assist the country to increase its performance and prevent farmers from smuggling cocoa to neighbouring nations. However, there is lack of standards to address the challenges with Ghana's cocoa value chain. Using survey, document reviews, structured interview and Porter's diamond model, we examined the cocoa value chain in Ghana. Our results can serve as services and standards for the cocoa value chain in Ghana and other similar countries.

Keywords: cocoa value chain; services; standards; smallholder farmers; Ghana; cocoa industry; developing countries.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSS.2012.049423

International Journal of Services and Standards, 2012 Vol.8 No.2, pp.116 - 132

Published online: 27 Dec 2014 *

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