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The Minority in Parliament has said the current increase in the producer price of cocoa is the lowest in the history of the country.
The Minority said its claim was based on the recent surge in the world market price of cocoa to an all-time high of an average of $10,000 per tonne, which was equivalent to GH¢130,000, at a conservative exchange rate of $1 to GH¢13.
That amount, it said, translated into GH¢8,125 per bag of cocoa on the international market.
"It is sad to note that the newly announced producer price of GH¢33,120 per tonne, which translates into GH¢2,070 per bag, constitutes a paltry 25.47 per cent of the world market price of cocoa," it said.
This was contained in a statement issued and signed by the Ranking Member on the Parliamentary Select Committee on Food, Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs and the National Democratic Congress Member (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Asunafo South, Eric Opoku, in response to the review of the producer price of cocoa for the 2023/24 cocoa season.
The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), in a statement dated April 5, 2024, titled "Review of the producer price of cocoa for the 2023/24 cocoa season", said the government, in consultation with stakeholders, had reviewed the producer price of cocoa for the rest of the 2023/24 crop year.
The statement issued and signed by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the COCOBOD, Joseph Boahen Aidoo, said the producer price of cocoa had been increased by 58.26 per cent 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, April 5, 2024," it said. "The increase in the producer price of cocoa has become necessary to enhance the income of cocoa farmers in line with the vision of the NPP government and in response to the rising prices of cocoa on the international market," it stated.
"The welfare of cocoa farmers is dear to the heart of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. It is for this reason that since the NPP government assumed office in 2017, the producer price of cocoa has increased by 336 per cent from GH¢7,600 per tonne in the 2016/17 cocoa season to an unprecedented level of GH¢33,120 per tonne for the rest of the 2023/24 cocoa season," it said.
But the Minority in its statement said it held the view that any increase in the farm-gate price of cocoa below 60 per cent of the prevailing international market price was a monumental rip-off of the country's cocoa farmers.
In other words, it said, any increment in the farm-gate price of cocoa below GH¢5,000 per bag was grossly unfair and unacceptable.
"At a time when our national cocoa output has sharply declined from 969,000 metric tonnes (mt) in 2016 to a paltry 450,000mt in 2024, the least expected of the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government is to give our already-impoverished cocoa farmers a fair increment in the farm-gate price of cocoa to compensate for the huge losses they have recorded in their incomes," the Minority observed.
The Minority last Tuesday, April 2, 2024, issued a press statement demanding an immediate increase in the producer price of cocoa to ameliorate the plight of Ghanaian cocoa farmers.
