Cocoa, the backbone of Ghana Economy

In the late 1800s, cocoa made its way to Ghana. The cocoa tree was brought to West Africa in the 1840s by São Tomé and Brazil, despite being native to Central and South America. Dutch missionaries cultivated cocoa in Ghana (then known as the Gold Coast) between the 1810s and 1850s, but Tetteh Quarshie, a blacksmith from Ghana, is credited with bringing cocoa to the nation in 1879 after returning from Fernando Po (now Bioko, Equatorial Guinea) with Amelonado cocoa pods. He (Tetteh Quarshie) founded a farm in Ghana's eastern district of Mampong-Akwapim, and farmers all over the country started growing cocoa. To increase productivity, Governor Sir William Bradford Griffith imported more pods and seedlings from São Tomé in 1886. Particularly in the Ashanti, Brong, Ahafo, Western, Western North, and Eastern regions of Ghana, cocoa had grown to be a significant cash crop by the early 20th century, with Ghana producing hundreds and thousands of tons a year.

The economy of Ghana depends very much on cocoa as the country’s main cash crop, accounting for about one-third of its export earnings and the second biggest export after gold. It supports the livelihood of about 1 000 000 cocoa farmers who cultivate the crop in Ghana. Cocoa funds the construction of roads in cocoa growing areas (Cocoa Roads Improvement Project) and the construction of health infrastructure. Moreover, COCOBOD annually invests about 2 million Ghana Cedis in cocoa scholarships from the Primary to Tertiary level for children of cocoa farmers and to date, about 2,500 beneficiaries have passed through the scheme.

Presently, over 70% of global cocoa comes from West Africa, with Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire producing nearly 60% of the world’s supply. Currently, Ghana is the second producer of cocoa in the world apart from Côte d’Ivoire.

Moreover, Ghana is a major exporter of its raw cocoa beans and other refined goods like cocoa creams, soap, drinks, and many more to other countries in order to make money. This has significantly improved the country's economy. Ghana was able to process and refined roughly 22% of its cocoa beans between 2008 and 2016 for use in the manufacture of chocolate, creams, soap, drinks, and many other items. However, between 2017 and 2024, the value of Ghana's refined raw cocoa beans to other products as mentioned earlier climbed from 22% to 42%, which might be further improved.

In addition, Ghana's cocoa prices varied within a comparatively constant range of roughly $1,900–$3,500 per metric ton throughout the most of the 2010–2023 period. Seasonal supply, currency exchange rates, and worldwide demand were all reflected in this cyclical pattern. But costs started to rise sharply in late 2022. Cocoa prices had risen six times from 2022 levels to an all-time high of almost $10,000 per metric ton by December 2024. The COCOABOD of Ghana raised the price of cocoa per bag to GHS 3 100 during the 2024–2025 crop season, and it was then raised to GHS 3 600 in October 2025. However, because of the precipitous decline in the price of cocoa on the global market, for farmers, COCOABOD has lowered the farm gate price for each bag from GHS 3,600 to GHS 2,580. The majority of farmers have been discouraged by this, and it has caused a great deal of resentment among them because they claim that COCOABOD has never lowered the farm gate price of cocoa farmers in Ghanaian history.

   Comments0