240 Purchasing clerks of OLAM Ghana Limited, a leading cocoa purchasing company in the country, have benefited from a two-day training workshop organised at Obuasi.

The training workshop was to ensure that the purchasing clerks were well-equipped for the cocoa business, and also to keep abreast with management decisions.

Topics treated included outstanding management, stock control, cycle time management and target setting. The participants were drawn from the western south cocoa division.

Speaking at the end of the workshop, Mr. Daniel Essien, Western South Regional Manager of Quality Control Company (QCC) of the Ghana Cocoa Board (Cocobod) expressed displeasure at the high level of the smuggling of cocoa along the border towns to neighbouring countries.

He told the participants that the fight against cocoa smuggling was a shared responsibility, and that they had a major role to play, if the canker was to be arrested.

He told them that their role was even more crucial, since they are directly involved in the buying of cocoa, and cautioned them that anybody caught smuggling cocoa would not be spared.

He was optimistic that the participants would use the knowledge acquired to project the image of OLAM Company limited.

The OLAM branch Coordinator for the Brong Ahafo Regional Cocoa Division, Mr. Willie Bedjabeng, announced that his outfit would soon launch an anti-smuggling campaign along the country's borders to help check the smuggling of cocoa to neighbouring countries.

He said there was the need for the smuggling to be checked, as it was having a negative impact on the country's economy.

He, therefore, cautioned the purchasing clerks to avoid being tempted into the cocoa smuggling business.

A purchasing clerk at Asisiwadi Society, Akropong District, Mr. Frank Armah, commended the management of OLAM for organising such a useful workshop, and promised to put the knowledge acquired to good use.

.