Editorial: Cocoa Farmers Expect Better Pricing This Year

Just this week, The Chronicle.com.gh reported that border officials at Ave-Havi Border Post in the Akatsi North District of the Volta Region had arrested a truck carrying hundreds of jerry cans that had been filled with cocoa beans en-route to Togo. This is not the first time this is happening, as Ghana Cocoa Board itself had, on several occasions, arrested people smuggling cocoa to the republic of Togo for sale.

Indeed, in December 2023, The Chronicle quoted Mr Joseph Boahen Aidoo, the then Chief Executive (CE) of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) as saying that  farmers in Oti and Volta regions are smuggling every single cocoa bean they produce to the Republic of Togo.

From February to October 2023, he revealed that  COCOBOD purchased only 70 bags of cocoa beans from farmers in the two regions, despite having the potential to offer the country about 10,000 metric tons of cocoa.

Joseph Boahen Aidoo went on to state that his outfit  had targeted to buy about 800,000 metric tons of cocoa from farmers that year (2023), but they were limited to the region of 650,000 metric tons. Blaming the situation on the farmers, he said “but for the smuggling, we should now be doing about 850,000 metric.”

What is motivating the smugglers, according to our sources, is the low price we offer farmers in Ghana. Though Togo is not major a cocoa producing country, she offers better incentives to farmers and this is what is attracting our ‘nation wreckers’ to smuggle the commodity, which is the life blood of our national economy to our neighbouring country.

But this is not the only problem affecting the sector that rakes in over $1billion every year to shore up our forex reserves. In some of the mining areas, farmers are cutting down cocoa trees and selling the land to illegal miners. In their opinion, they would earn more from selling the land to the illegal miners than to keep the economic trees.

In some of the areas too, farmers are cutting down the cocoa trees and planting rubber trees instead. This chronology of events tells a story that all is not well when it comes to pricing of cocoa in Ghana. Ghana, Ivory Coast and Togo are all selling their produce in the same world market – yet their local prices are always higher than ours.

This is a mystery, but we are happy that the Deputy Minister designate for Food and Agriculture, John Dumelo, has acknowledged these disparities, when he appeared before the Appointments Committee of Parliament recently. According to graphic.com.gh report, John Dumelo underscored the urgent need for improved cocoa pricing to discourage farmers from leasing their lands to illegal miners.

“Giving cocoa farmers the right price will deter them from selling their cocoa farms,” he stated, stressing that fair compensation for their produce is key to retaining farmlands for agricultural purposes. Beyond pricing, John Dumelo also called for stricter regulations in the mining sector to mitigate its negative impact on the country’s cocoa industry.

“The second one is also to restructure or structure the whole mining industry well so that wherever they mine, it wouldn’t be able to affect these cocoa farms. But I think that the main one is about pricing,” he added.

Having acknowledged the problem and based on what his boss, Mr Eric Opoku, the sector minister  stated when he also appeared before the same Appointments Committee, The Chronicle does not expect low pricing of cocoa for farmers this year. Judging From what Mr Opoku told Parliament, Ghanaians do not expect anything less than 70% of the world price of the commodity being given to the farmers.

As we earlier indicated, cocoa fetches a lot of foreign exchange for the country and if we, as a country, have come to accept that low prices being offered on the local market is what is motivating people to smuggle the precious commodity, then it means we have already found the solution to the problem and must find the way in paying the farmers appropriate prices.

The Chronicle is, therefore, challenging John Dumelo and his boss, the minister of Agriculture, Eric Opoku to prove to Ghanaians that what they told the Appointments Committee were not just political talks and that they meant every word that they uttered. Should they fail to honour their own words, Ghanaians have the right to punish them at the polls.

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