Mahama: 63% increase in cocoa producer price a rip-off

Former president John Mahama has described the latest increment in cocoa producer price by the government as a rip-off at hardworking cocoa farmers in Ghana.

President Akufo-Addo has announced a 63.6% increase in the producer price of cocoa from GHC12,800 per metric tonne (GHC800 per bag) to GHC20,943 per metric tonne.

This means that farmers will be paid GHC1,308.99 for every 64-kilogram bag of cocoa beans sold to licensed buying companies.

Speaking on Saturday (9 September) at Tepa in the Ashanti Region, President Akufo-Addo said the new price was the highest paid to farmers anywhere in West Africa in over 50 years.

However, reacting to the development on Facebook on Monday (11 September), Mahama said the farmers deserve a better increment considering the price of cocoa on the international market.

“The government’s just-announced increase in the farm-gate price of cocoa is a rip-off of our hardworking cocoa farmers and their families who continue to sustain our economy through their toil,” Mahama wrote on Facebook.

“With the international market price surging to a 46-year record high of $3,600, the government should have given our cocoa farmers their fair share of the international FOB price. Sadly, the government has chosen to give them a paltry GH₵1,308 per bag, constituting only 52.7% of the FOB Price of the product on the international market.

“This is unfair to our cocoa farmers, who have been worse off since the NPP took over the reins of government in 2017.\In 2016, my government, in addition to the free fertiliser and free cocoa seedlings programme, gave cocoa farmers 66.06% of the FOB Price of cocoa. This NPP administration should have built on this foundation. They have rather increased the operational expenses of COCOBOD and reduced the international FOB share for the farmers. Cocoa farmers certainly deserve better,” Mahama said.

Below is the full statement:

Reporting by Fred Dzakpata in Accra

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