Mampong Things to Do

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In the year 1870 the Ghanaian Tetteh Quarshie came back from a stay in Nigeria. There he had seen cocoa-trees, and he understood that this was a good product to do business with Western countries. He took two very small trees with him and planted them in his hometown Mampong.

The trees grew very well here and soon he planted more and more trees. At more places in the country, soon cocoa farms appeared. A few decades later Ghana was the biggest cocoa producer in the world and today it is still at a second place behind Ivory Coast.

In Mampong you can visit the original cocoa farm of Tetteh Quarshie. The local farmers who work there will show you around and explain you about the process of cocoa producing. Their English is terrible, but with hands, feet and a lot of fantasy, you will be able to understand what they try to tell you.

Cocoa grows from the tree brenches, and when the fruit turns orange, it is cut of. They open the fruit and take the beans out. After a few days of leaving the beans on the ground to get rid of the flesh around it, the beans are dried in the sun, and finally they are ready to be exported to Europe and America.

When I visited the farm, they farmers gave me a fruit to take home and try it myself: and it is a lot of work I can tell! They didn't ask me for a fixed price, and they were happy with the 20.000 cedis ($ 2,-) I gave them at the end of the 30 minutes tour.