US commodities trader Cargill opened a $100 million cocoa processing plant in Ghana intended to reach full production within three months.

Cargill, one of the world’s largest private companies will process cocoa into butter, powder and liquor at the plant, which has initial capacity of 65, 000 tonnes.

The factory in the eastern port of Tema has the potential to expand capacity to 120,000 tonnes.

"Our plan is to try and get to full capacity as quickly as possible, in order to broaden the market with our Ghana products," said Greg Page, Chairman of Cargill Incorporated.

Ghana intends to have its beans refined into value-added products domestically, rather than shipped overses for processing.

Meanwhile, another US firm Archer Daniels Midland is also building a processing plant in the country. The plant in Kumasi is expected to start working next year, with capacity of 30,000 tonnes.