The forestry department ordered pre-production to stop in November for an environmental impact study, but ruled last month any damage would be repairable.
Alarm bells started to ring at the firm's headquarters when a Cadbury-financed study by the University of Sussex and the University of Accra found that the average production of a cocoa farmer had dropped to 40% of potential yield, and that the children of cocoa farmers did not want to work in the family business any more.