The Ghana National Cocoa Farmers Association has described the Ghana Cocoa Board’s announcement of an increment in the farmgate prices of cocoa beans as inadequate.
According to the President of the association, Stephenson Anane Boateng, the 58.26 percent increase is insulting to cocoa farmers because the price of this essential commodity has been raised to $10,000 per metric tonne globally.
In an interview with CitiNews, he said, “Cocoa has been raised globally to $10,000 per metric tonne. So if you compare and you convert to our currency, it is running into over GH¢9,000. We totally disagree with them. We pay our labour, we buy inputs for the farm, and then we also pay ourselves.”
“So in a nutshell, we get only GH¢600 for that while COCOBOD also gets GH¢7,000. So what work did COCOBOD do and give us that money? It’s an insult!” he bemoaned.
The price of cocoa beans was however raised from GH¢20,928 per tonne to GH¢33,120.00 for the rest of the 2023/2024 cocoa season.
The new rate took effect Friday, April 5, 2024.
According to COCOBOD, the increment was to enhance the income of cocoa farmers, as well as, discourage the smuggling of cocoa beans to neighbouring countries.
SA/MA
Source: www.ghanaweb.com