Does It Mean Ghana And Ivory Coast Are Begging For Cocoa Price Hikes?

I read yesterday (8/9/2020) in the media, a story about Ghana and Ivory Coast coming together to press on chocolate makers and other users of cocoa products to increase the purchasing price of the raw commodity.

Ghana and Ivory Coast combine to contribute close to 70% of the world's raw cocoa beans market. But the revenues accrued to the poor farmers in those two countries perennially are just a fraction, microcosm, of the huge profits made by the global chocolate industries.

And I learned from the many comments that, Ghanaians are happy because the leaders are begging cocoa buyers to increase the purchasing price?

Hmm, this is how I'll take it. Knowing from firsthand the difficulties cocoa farmers go through before the beans gets to the international market, vis-a-vis the misery living of those farmers.

If I do have a daughter, beautiful, educated, and well-groomed for the taste of any suitor. Then one day, a rich guy comes to seek her hand in marriage. The groom brings his bride price of two cows. Before I talk, as a father, then my daughter springs up to appeal, or literally beg the yet to-be-husband, saying: "please dear, can't you add one cow to my dower, even if it's a young suckling baby cow?".

Mark my words, I'll in that instance bludgeon my daughter to her early grave. I'll never have a second thought about my actions, bringing me in conflict with the law. Yes, she's a wasted sperm thus and deserves such an unhappy ending.

Such is the case of Ghana in a hopeless alliance with Ivory Coast, selling our most priced cocoa beans to global chocolate makers.

Our cocoa beans is needed in chocolates to make it much sought after by consumers of the product worldwide.

Why do we beg for price increment whilst we can control the price to our advantage?

Hasn't the Ghana's president Akuffo Addo read it how his Great Uncle, JB Danquah, joined forces with Kwame Nkrumah to burn Cocoa beans in Ghana rather than selling the commodity at a giveaway price to the chocolate makers? And that gave Ghana a fair price thereafter?

We can't continue clapping for mediocrity when it comes to our leaders mortgaging our bequeathed resources to those who never cared for our wellbeing as Africans.

Go to the cocoa farms and see for yourself the sleeping place of the farmers, the water they share drinking with animals, the unhygienic, and the health risks. We cannot continue in this beggarly living whilst richness should be synonymous with our name, judging by the value of our vast resources. Fellow Ghanaians and Africans, we deserve better, we're not beggars.

Written by: Charles Yeboah (Sir Lord )

The Founder Of One Ghana Movement (#1GhM)

Contact: +233249542111

Email: [email protected]