Adnan Adams Mohammed
Government is preparing to announce a new cocoa price latest by October 1, 2019 after key stakeholders in the global cocoa industry agreed on the proposed Floor Price by Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire of US$2,600 per tonne for cocoa beans.
This was made known by the Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD Joseph Boahen Aidoo, last week when he spoke to journalists after launching the 2019 Cocoa Day. He maintained that, cocoa farmers will be given priority in setting the new price for the commodity for the 2019/2020 crop season.
The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) recently gave an assurance that cocoa farmers in the country would soon have something to smile about in the coming days as far as the pricing of cocoa beans for the 2020/2021 season is concerned. The price of the cocoa is expected to rise to GHC8,000 per tonne from the current GHC7,600 per tonne, a Senior Manager at Cocobod Accra based media.
“I have always told our farmers to expect rainy days in the future,” he said adding that farmers will get a surprise price that will improve their wellbeing.
Also, COCOBOD CEO has noted that, cocoa farmers would have nothing to worry about as the Pricing Committee is set to present the price of the commodity to the government by 1 October 2019, which coincides with the climax of the Cocoa Day celebration in Ghana.
“I cannot be very emphatic on the price because the price of cocoa is determined by the Producer Price Review Committee. The Committee is an organisation of a number of representatives of the farmers’ reps from all the regions and then at the national level with reps from Cocobod, reps from MoFA, reps from the Ministry of Finance and all stakeholders who have something to do with cocoa are represented on this big committee.
“It is only the committee that determines the price of cocoa. So, they are meeting and will continue meeting until the end of September and then present the new price to the government through the Ministry of Food and Agriculture. So, a price is coming and I tell farmers they must look forward to rainy days ahead.”
Ghana and Ivory Coast, the two major producers of cocoa beans have managed to set a floor price for cocoa from which US$400 will go to farmers for every ton produced.
The two countries set the price at 2,600 dollars per ton. The move is expected to impact the lives of cocoa farmers by improving their earnings from the commodity.
