Ghana’s Cocoa Marketing Board (Cocobod) is set to raise the price paid to cocoa farmers for their produce by 50% to share extra profit from rising global prices. A spokesperson from Cocobod relayed the information.
According to Reuters, Cocoa prices have more than tripled in the last year due to adverse weather and disease affecting the output of cocoa farmers pushing the global market to a third successive deficit.
Before this announcement, the official price Cocoa growers in Ghana and Ivory Coast who supply about 60% of the world’s cocoa produce can charge for their produce was yet to reflect the current price surge in the global market.
Ghana’s state-guaranteed cocoa price is currently at 20,943 cedis ($1,574.66) per tone or around 21 cedis per kilogram.
Ivory Coast president on Tuesday announced that he was increasing Cocoa prices in the country to 1,500 CFA francs ($2.47, or around 33 cedi) per kg for the April-to-September mid-crop of the 2023/24 season, up from 1,000 CFA francs last season.
Fiifi Boafo. The head of Public Affairs at Cocobod said the new prices could be announced as soon as this week and didn’t comment further.
An anonymous cocoa exporter told Reuters that the Minister of Food and Agriculture would meet cocoa sector stakeholders on Wednesday afternoon.
“This is a mid-term price and it has nothing to do with next year’s price,” the exporter said.
Another source conversant with the strategy of Cocobod said that Ghana’s price hike is a response to Ivory Coast’s recent price hike with concerns of smuggling being one of the key factors for the decision.
Several licensed cocoa buyers from Ghana welcomed the price increment stating it is long overdue but pointed out that it will affect their cost of operation.
Cocoa production in Ghana has faced multiple challenges over the years drastically affecting the total output in the West African country.
Cocobod said it lost about 150,000 tonnes of Cocoa to smuggling and illegal gold mining in the 2022/23 season. It anticipates an increase in these losses as the rising global prices serve as an increased incentive for smugglers.