19/8/2025–|Last update: 19:04 (Mecca time)
The Cocoa Grace Alliance in Ghana threatened to prevent the employees of the National Organization of the Sector from entering their farms, in protest against the new price of the announced product for the next season, which they say may lead to the exacerbation of the illegal smuggling operations to the Ivory Coast and Togo.
More than 300,000 farmers expressed their anger, which they consider insufficient compensation, while some said that they will escape their entire crop to Cote d’Ivoire if they live near the border, where prices are seen as more fair.
At the beginning of August, the Ghanaian government announced a fixed purchase price at the farm of up to 51,000 of the local currency ($ 4.7 thousand) per ton in the 2025-2026 season, which constitutes a slight increase in prices of 4% over the previous season.
The new price is less than the government’s pledge to pay 70% of the delivery price on the ship used in international trade, which should have been about 3.8 thousand sir per bag.
For his part, Kwami Alex, who recently won the Best Cocoa Farms Award in the National Awards, said that there is a difference of approximately 700 sir between the Ghanaian price and the price of ivory cocoa in the markets, indicating that this difference creates incentives for smuggling.
The threat of farmers to exclude the staff of the Ghanaian Cocoa Authority from their farms is an escalation that may disrupt agricultural support services in cocoa production areas. The field inspectors visit the fields regularly to examine crops and provide guidance to workers.
This predicament reflects the escalation of the frustration in the cocoa sector in Gana, as smuggling has already become a major problem, and the country lost about 160,000 tons of cocoa through illegal trade across the border in the 2024/2023 season, according to some officials.
(Tagstotranslate) News (T) Economy (T) Africa (T) Ghana