The Cocoa Farmers Association has expressed dissatisfaction with the new farm gate prices for cocoa beans announced by the government.
The Government through the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) announced an increase for the Producer Price of cocoa by 58.26% from 1,308ghc to 2,070ghc per 64kg for the rest of the 2023/24 cocoa season.
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in a quick response indicated that the farm-gate price of cocoa if below 60% of the prevailing international market price is a monumental rip-off of the nation’s suffering cocoa farmers.
“At a time when our national cocoa output has sharply declined from 969,000mt in 2016 to a paltry 450,000mt in 2024, the least expected of the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government is to give our already-impoverished cocoa farmers a fair increment in the farm-gate price of cocoa to compensate for the huge losses they have recorded in their incomes.
“We hold the view that any increase in the farm-gate price of cocoa below 60% of the prevailing international market price is a monumental rip-off of our suffering cocoa farmers,” the ranking Member on the Parliamentary Select Committee on Food, Agric & Cocoa Affairs, Eric Opoku disclosed in a statement.
Commenting on the development, the President of the Cocoa Farmers Association, Stephenson Anane Boateng believes that the government could do better with the new farm gate prices announced.
“Cocoa has been raised globally to $10,000 per metric ton. So if you compare, and you convert to our currency, it is running into over GH¢9,000. We totally disagree with them. We pay our labour, we buy inputs for the farm, and then we also pay ourselves.
“So in a nutshell, we get only GH¢600 for that while COCOBOD also gets GH¢7,000. So what work did COCOBOD do and give us that money? It’s an insult!” he added.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM
