Environmental impacts of cocoa production and processing in Ghana: life cycle assessment approach

Ghana is the world's second largest producer of cocoa beans. In addition to exporting raw cocoa beans, the country also processes some of its beans into finished and semi-finished cocoa products for both the local and international markets. This paper is aimed at providing a comprehensive picture of the environmental impacts associated with cocoa production and processing in Ghana by applying the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. The analysis considered the entire system required to produce and process 1 kg of cocoa bean. It included the extraction of raw materials (e.g. fossil fuels, minerals), the production of farming inputs (e.g. fertilizers and pesticides) and all agricultural operations in the field (e.g. tillage, fertilizer and pesticides application, harvest, etc.). Transportation of beans to processing factory and industrial processing of the beans into cocoa butter, liquor, cake and powder were also included. The study was conducted in accordance with the international ISO procedural framework for performing LCA in the ISO 14040–14043 series.The overall environmental impacts resulting from cocoa production and processing activities and improvement options towards the sustainability of the system studied are presented and discussed.