A group of cocoa farmers in Ghana have threatened to bar national regulator personnel from their farms in protest of the recently set producer price for the upcoming season, claiming it could encourage illegal activity smuggling to Togo and Ivory Coast.
Over 300,000 farmers voiced their displeasure over what they saw as insufficient remuneration; some even threatened to smuggle their whole harvest to Ivory Coast if they resided close to the border, where prices are thought to be more favorable.
On August 4, Ghana declared a set farmgate price for the 2025–2026 season of 51,660 cedis ($4,783) per ton, or 3,228 cedis each 64 kg bag. This is a little 4% increase over the previous season.
The price is below the government’s pledge to pay 70% of the free-on-board price used in international trade, which should have produced about 3,800 cedis per bag, according to Theophilus Tamakloe, vice president of the Ghana Cooperative Cocoa Farmers and Marketing Association.
According to Kwame Alex, who was crowned Best Cocoa Farmer at the most recent national awards, the price difference between Ghanaian cocoa and Ivorian cocoa was approximately 700 cedis. “(That) creates incentives for smuggling,” Alex, who is not affiliated with the coalition, stated.
“If I’m close to the Cote d’Ivoire border, probably all my cocoa beans will go to Cote d’Ivoire because the government has not been fair to us,” Tamakloe said.
An escalation that can impair agricultural assistance services in cocoa-growing regions is the farmers’ threat to bar officers employed by COCOBOD, Ghana’s cocoa regulator, from their farms.
Extension agents frequently visit farms to inspect crops and provide farmers with information.
The impasse underscores mounting annoyance in Ghana’s cocoa industry, where smuggling has already grown to be a major issue.
According to COCOBOD officials, the illicit cross-border trade cost the nation almost 160,000 tons of cocoa during the 2023–2024 season.
Given growing manufacturing expenses, such as the fact that pesticides are now selling for 150 cedis each and that equipment rental rates are already exceeding 100 cedis per day, Kwame Alex claimed that pricing was especially poor.
Source: newsthemegh.com