Cocoa farmers in the country are displeased with the President’s approved 58.26% price increment for the rest of the 2023/24 season. The farmers said if their expenses are considered, that price would not mean anything to them.
COCOBOD announced in a press release that “The Producer Price of cocoa has been increased by 58.26% from GH¢20,928 per tonne to GH¢33,120.00 per tonne for the rest of the 2023/24 cocoa season. This figure translates into GH¢2,070 per bag of 64 kg gross weight and takes effect from Friday, 5th April 2024.”
The Ghana National Cocoa Farmers Association reacted to the announced increment by calling it an “insult”. They said despite COCOBOD’s claim that they are distributing the benefits of the increase in prices in the global market, it does not reflect the real value.
“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,” the association explained.
According to the association, for profits of about GH¢9,000, it is pathetic that COCOBOD gives them less than GH¢1,000 and keeps the rest. It said for the efforts the farmers put into producing cocoa beans, they deserved more.
“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!”