Giving farmers below GHC5,000 per bag is grossly unfair and unacceptable — Minority

The Minority caucus in Ghana’s Parliament says cocoa farmers have been cheated with the latest increase in the producer price for cocoa, as it falls far short of international market prices.

The Ghana Cocoa Board this on Friday, April 5, announced an increase in the producer price, from GH₵20,928 to GH₵33,120 per tonne.

However, Eric Opoku, Ranking Member of the Food, Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs Committee, says this only translates to 25.47% of current world market prices of over US$10,000 per tonne.

"Once again, we wish to reiterate that this is a rip-off of our hard-working cocoa farmers, as it constitutes the lowest percentage of the international market price of cocoa ever given to Ghanaian cocoa farmers as farm-gate price in the history of this country," Eric Opoku stated.

The Minority has demanded that the price be increased to at least 60% of international prices, which would equate to over GH₵5,000 per bag.

Anything less than this would be "grossly unfair and unacceptable" to cocoa farmers struggling with declining production, the minority caucus stressed.

Meanwhile, the government touts the 336% increase in the producer price since 2017, but Minority argues this masks the fact farmers are still receiving a fraction of global prices.