IBUS 6403: Graduate Global Enrichment in Ghana

Increasingly, some consumers in the United States have been taking a closer look at how their food is produced and who benefits from the money they spend at the register.  Additionally, we are also becoming more conscious of the waste that we are generating and the impact that it creates.

On any given package or Farmer’s Market table, some claims range from the type of seeds used (e.g., GMO v. Non-GMO) to the conditions on the farm (e.g., shade-grown, organic) to the distance the food has traveled (e.g., local, Grown in ….). This growing ‘food awareness’ by consumers has created opportunities for partners throughout the production process to initiate changes in their practices to try and better align with shifting consumer preferences.

While corporations are changing practices and packaging, the governments of Ghana and Ivory Coast, which combined produce about two-thirds of the world’s cocoa, in June 2019 set a floor price on the cocoa produced in their countries in an effort to combat farmer poverty. 

At the same time that Ghana is a leading global exporter of cocoa, it is also a leading global importer of secondhand goods – much of the things we buy and fail to sell at the garage sales we pass to donation centers, such as Goodwill. If it lingers too long on the shelves of Goodwill, it is likely destined for destinations in Africa. Ghana’s business ecosystem is bustling, with Ghanaian entrepreneurs creating social enterprises. Ghana is producing the most female entrepreneurs globally. 

This program is designed to explore how the commodities of cocoa, social enterprises, and secondhand goods are transformed through value addition and sold into markets at price multiples well above their base ‘farm gate’ price. 

To understand this commodity extraction and value creation process, we will learn about Ghana’s long history and rich culture and how entrepreneurs and business people in Ghana are participating in this transformation. 

If you care about where your food comes from, the added value of social enterprises,  and where the Turkey Trot 5K t-shirt you left at Goodwill last year is today or learn from the country producing the most female entrepreneurs in the world,  join us in Ghana to find out.