The Chief Executive Officer of the Chamber of Agribusiness Ghana, Farmer Anthony Morrison, has said that the Ghana Cocoa Board has outlived its organizational relevance to cocoa farmers as the 45% producer price increment in cocoa prices does not resonate well with cocoa farmers.
The Chief Executive Officer made this assertion on the GBC Talking Point show on September 15, 2024.
In a conversation about the new cocoa price which has been reported as a 45% increase, Farmer Morrison compared the kilogram that makes up a cocoa bag in Ghana and other countries, indicating that Ghana is buying a bag of cocoa at 64kg, while Indonesia, which is the third-largest producer of cocoa, is buying a cocoa bag at 50kg.
He indicated that in the cases of other countries like Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Indonesia, and other cocoa-producing countries, the kilograms are measured lower than in Ghana.
He indicated that a 45% increase in cocoa price is inadequate as farmers pay for everything they do on their lands, including weeding, spraying, buying and applying fertilizers, among other things.
He further reiterated that some farmers even pay for the lands they farm on because they rent the land.
He went on to say that there should be an examination of the factors that influence cocoa prices internally and globally, and these should be factored into the intervention of the Cocoa Board for farmers.
He therefore disagrees with Cocoa Board expenses at their headquarters since cocoa is produced on the field and not at the headquarters.
He indicated that the bureaucracy at the Cocoa Board is part of the reason why the board has declared losses for the past seven years.
“We need to look into the Cocoa Board’s structural position, functions, and competitive advantage in the global market,” he said.
According to Farmer Morrison, there is a need for a new Cocoa Board that is market-oriented.
“Its approach must add value to Ghana’s cocoa. We need to export value-added cocoa to the international market and not raw cocoa; that is where the board can get money to pay the cocoa farmers what they deserve.”
Echoing the sentiments of Farmer Anthony Morrison, the Executive Director of Tarzan Enterprise Limited, Ziad Hamoui, also questioned the Ghana Cocoa Board on their huge expenses while their mission is to produce, process, and export cocoa.
He also shared the thoughts of Anthony Morrison, stating that the current cocoa price increase of 45% doesn’t seem fair to farmers.
He indicated that cocoa price alone doesn’t determine the value of cocoa, as pricing is one of the factors that lead to the smuggling of cocoa to other countries.
