Adnan Adams Mohammed
Government has announced a new farm gate cocoa bean price as it predated the 2023/2024 crop season.
The new price is pegged at GHC1,308 per bag, a significant jump from previous season price of GHC800. This translate to 63.5 percentage increment.
The price per tonne also increases from GH¢12,800.00 to GH¢ 20,943.00.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo announced this at Tepa on Saturday, September 9, 2023.
He said the new price was the highest in the sub region in the last 15 years and was meant to improve the livelihoods of the farmers and for a fair and remunerative price for their efforts.
Although, the increase in price is very significant, it still fall short of the demands by the farmers who expected GHC1,380 as the new price as captured in a press statement of Ghana Civil Society Cocoa Platform (GCCP) last week.
Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) announced the opening of the upcoming cocoa season for 2023/2024 starting last week Friday, September 8, 2023.
The predated announcement was aimed at safeguarding the interests of cocoa farmers against recent disruptions in the internal marketing of cocoa beans, a statement issued by the Chief Executive of COCOBOD, Joseph Boahen Aidoo said.
The initial expected date of starting the season was October 1st, 2023.
Inadvertently, cocoa farmers called for a 72.5% upward adjustment of the farm gate price of cocoa beans from current price of GH¢800 to GH¢1,380 per bag for this crop season.
“Based on the working assumption of the Producer Price Review Committee (PPRC), which aims at ensuring that farm gate price is pegged at a minimum of 70% of the net Free on Board (FoB) price of cocoa beans, GCCP is of the firm opinion that farmers in Ghana should be receiving a minimum of ¢22,080 per tonne, which is equivalent to ¢1,380 per bag (62.5kg) of cocoa beans”, Leticia Yankey of the Ghana Civil Society Cocoa Platform (GCCP) said while addressing the media ahead of COCOBOD announcement.
“This figure was arrived at using the lowest projected values available including an LID of $400 per tonne as agreed.”
Also, Co-Coordinator of the Ghana Civil Society Cocoa Platform, Obed Owusu-Addai, said the Living Income Differential (LID) of $400 is a façade as the amount has dropped to $25.
“Before 2020, Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire, we were enjoying the origin differential/country premium and even after the season had ended, COCOBOD gave bonuses. But in 2019/20 cocoa season when Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire instituted the Living Income Differential of $400 per tonne of cocoa, the market reacted”.
“For 2020/2021 cocoa season, the country premium went into negative to the extent that till date, the premium has reduced to $25,” he bemoaned.
The Ghana Civil-Society Cocoa Platform is an independent campaign and advocacy platform for civil society actors in the cocoa sector.
