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148 bags of cocoa beans that were being smuggled out of Ghana have been intercepted and handed over to the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD). Smuggling of cocoa is impeding Ghana�s aim of increasing cocoa production from 700,000 tonnes to an annual production of one million tonnes by 2012. Cocoa output figures were below four percent a year ago due to increased cross-border smuggling and it is reported that traders from neighboring Cote d�Ivoire pay higher prices for Ghana�s high quality cocoa beans which they mix with their stock for export. Officials of the nation�s security services are taking steps to combat the menace.Lately, the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) intercepted about 150 bags of cocoa beans loaded in two trucks and handed them over to the COCOBOD. Customs personnel at the Akanu border in the Volta region stopped a truck for the normal checks after they suspected that the cocoa beans were being smuggled.Robert Mensah, Chief Collector and Client Relations of GRA told journalists in Accra that upon interrogation, the customs officials at post found that the buses were travelling from Swefi cross the Ghana-Togo border. The second truck, a Mercedes Benz truck, was intercepted by officials of Customs and operatives of the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) at Dodze upon a tip-off.Mr. Mensah stated that four persons, who were couriers on the trucks, have been handed over to the police to assist in investigations. The cocoa beans have been sent for examination while investigations continue to ascertain the owners of the trucks and the people behind the smuggling business. After taking delivery of the smuggled beans, Noah Amenyah, Public Affairs Manager of COCOBOD, commended the officials of the BNI and GRA for their efforts to save the nations cocoa.Cocoa is one of Ghana�s main foreign exchange earners and the nation loses millions of cedis due to smuggling. Mr. Amenyah expressed the hope that the security service and the revenue agencies would continue to arrest persons who attempt to smuggle cocoa outside the country.He admitted that combating the smuggle of cocoa beans should not be the work of the security services alone and called on the public to join in the fight. The role of the public, he noted, would include reporting such miscreants and providing the security services with information that would facilitate the arrests of such miscreants. He further explained that his outfit would examine the cocoa beans and offer the quality and substandard ones to the appropriate companies. He also called on the general public to help curb the menace by informing security agents to arrest such perpetrators as there will be incentives for such persons.It is an offence to import or export goods through unapproved routes in Ghana, and Mr Mensah hinted that such people would be liable to forfeiture. According to COCOBOD, Ghana is on course to achieving its target of cocoa production for the year, but smuggling could significantly hamper the nation�s prospects.