The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) CEO, Joseph Boahene Aidoo, has revealed that Ghana lost 120,000 metric tons of cocoa beans to smuggling between 2022 and 2023.
During a press conference in Accra on Monday, October 14, the CEO of COCOBOD stated that despite the ongoing fight by COCOBOD and government agencies to prevent revenue lost due to cocoa smuggling it has not yielded the needed results.
However, the most farmers has attributed the reason behind these activities is as a result of favorable prices in neighboring countries.
Mr Aidoo, blamed the smuggling activities on the structure of the international cocoa trading system that causes price discrepancies between Ghana and other neighboring countries.
He said, “About 100 to 120,000 metric tons of cocoa was smuggled out of Ghana, especially in the last two years. Now for last year and this year in particular, this has been so. This has been so because the international market trading system is inverted. When you say it is inverted, it means that today, the spot price has become more appreciable.”
The CEO called for a concerted effort in the fight against cocoa smuggling, adding that the phenomena cause a threat to the industry and the livelihood of cocoa farmers in Ghana.