Cocoa production will not exceed 500,000 metric tonnes in the 2023/2024 crop season due to the swollen-shoot disease, the World Bank has disclosed in its 8th Ghana Economic Update.
In the 2022/2023 crop season, cocoa production fell to around 670,000 tons last season.
The World Bank said the price surged from $2.39 per kilogram in 2022 to a record high of $5.56 per kilogramme in February 2024, the rollover of the presale contracts for the unmet volume over the past two seasons makes it challenging for COCOBOD to pre-sell production for future seasons.
Moreover, COCOBOD has accumulated large losses in the past years due to the high rollover cost of outstanding cocoa bills, high operational costs, fertilizer provision, and rural roads development.
Ghana registered a record over one million metric tonnes of cocoa production in the 2020/2021 crop season.
Meanwhile, Reuters earlier reported that Ghanaian cocoa farmers expect a boost in the 2024/2025 season starting in October 2024 after a sharp fall in production this season contributed to boosting global cocoa prices to record levels.
Ghana’s poorest harvests in a decade this season is attributed to harsh weather conditions resulting from El Nino, rampant smuggling and swollen shoot disease.
An increase in production would not only help Ghana’s finances, but also the global chocolate industry that has been grappling with tight supply.
Founder of the Pan African Heritage Museum, Kojo Yankah has said that the Ghana school feeding programme (GSFP) under the Free Senior High School programme is not sustainable.
He argues that no government budget can support the growing number of children in Ghana, a factor that threatens the programme.
Moreover, he said, the programme is too party-oriented depending on who is in government.
The Ghana School Feeding Programme which started in 2005 is an initiative of the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Program (CAADP) Pillar 3 which seeks to enhance food security and reduce hunger in line with the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on hunger, poverty and malnutrition.
The Immediate objectives of the Programme are to contribute to increase school enrolment, attendance and retention, reduce short-term hunger and malnutrition amongst kindergarten and primary school children and also boost domestic food production.
But in a post on his Facebook page, Mr Kojo Yankah who is also the founder of the African University College of Communications (AUCC) said “the school Feeding programme is not sustainable. First, most children are leaving their original schools to go to schools where there is Feeding.
“Second, it’s making our youth lazy : in our time we had school farms. Third, no government budget can support the growing number of children in Ghana. Foreign funding is needed to bail this program out. Fourth, the programme is too party-oriented depending on who is in Government. Self reliance in an agriculture-based economy should be the driving force ! We have NO excuse.”
President of the African Development Bank Group, Dr Adesina Akiwumi, has indicated that there are five issues that the reinvigorated Arab-Africa partnership should focus on.
At the top of the list, he said, is energy development, second, is the exploitation of the continent’s rich green mineral resources, third, mobilisation of support for green infrastructure in Africa, fourth, food security and lastly, ensuring that the new drive for Arab-Africa partnership revolves around the Africa Investment Forum initiative.
“In the last five years, because of our collective work together, we have been able to attract over 180 billion dollars in investment interest into Africa. So, I am fully confident that as we structure the Arab and African financial institutions’ partnership, around this (Africa Investment Forum) effort, we can deliver even more results” Dr Adesina Akiwumi said at a leader’s breakfast as part of the Arab-Africa Financial Consortium, which took place as part of the launch of the newly established Arab-Africa Financial Consortium (AAFC) and the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) 50th anniversary, at the Kempinski hotel, in Accra on Sunday, 21 July 2024.
For his part, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said that as stakeholders celebrate fifty years of Arab-Africa cooperation there is a need to reaffirm their commitment to the partnership.
He said there was a need to build on the successes of the past and work together to address the challenges of the future.
“Let us strive to create a more prosperous, inclusive, and sustainable future for all our peoples,” President Akufo-Addo said.
He observed that BADEA has, in the last 50 years, played a key role in the development of the African continent and he is confident that with the establishment of the AAFC, the next fifty years will be even more exciting as far as the relationship between the Arab world and the African continent is concerned.
Investment in human capital, infrastructure development, trade and investment growth, and women and youth empowerment, according to President Akufo-Addo, are four key areas that he believes the Arab-Africa Financial Consortium (AAFC) ought to pay attention to and drive.
“Over the past five decades, BADEA has been a beacon of hope, a catalyst for development, and a symbol of the enduring bond between our two regions. Since its inception in 1974, BADEA has been instrumental in fostering economic development and cooperation between African and Arab countries.
“It has played a pivotal role in financing and supporting numerous projects across the African continent from infrastructure development to healthcare, education, and agriculture. These projects have not only contributed to the socio-economic development of our nations and continent but have also strengthened the partnership between Africa and the Arab world,” President Akufo-Addo said.
BADEA’s commitment to Africa according to President Akufo-Addo, “is evident in its track record”. He said that “over the past 50 years, BADEA has financed over 700 projects in more than 44 African countries with a total value exceeding US$6 billion”. These projects, Akufo-Addo said “have created jobs, improved living standards, and spared economic growth across the continent.”
“BADEA has not only evolved to meet the expectations of the continent and shareholders but also to demonstrate agility and responsiveness to meet development challenges from the COVID-19 response to becoming pledges in the Arab coordination group on food security, climate change, and resilient infrastructure. As we celebrate fifty years of Arab-Africa cooperation through BADEA, let us reaffirm our commitment to this vital partnership.
“Let us build on the successes of the past and work together to address the challenges of the future. Let us strive to create a more prosperous, inclusive, and sustainable future for all our peoples. I call on all stakeholders, governments, the private sector, civil society, and international organisations to join hands in this endeavour,” President Akufo-Addo said.
The Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) was established under the resolution of the 6th Arab Summit Conference at Algiers (28 November 1973). The Bank began operations in March 1975. BADEA is a financial institution owned by eighteen Arab member countries of the League of Arab States (LAS) which signed its Establishing Agreement on 18 February 1974.
The Bank is an independent International Institution enjoying full international legal status and complete autonomy in administrative and financial matters. It is governed by the provisions of its Establishing Agreement and the principles of international law.
The Arab Coordination Group (ACG), an alliance of Arab development institutions established to promote and coordinate financial and technical assistance to developing countries, primarily in the Arab world and Africa, is partnering with BADEA to launch the Arab – Africa Financial Consortium (AAFC).
The ACG comprises several key institutions including; the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa, the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, the Arab Gulf Programme for Development, the Arab Monetary Fund, the Islamic Development Bank, Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development, OPEC Fund for International Development, Qatar Development Fund, and the Saudi Fund for Development.
Several other key Arab institutions will also play an instrumental role in leveraging the partnership between the Arab and African countries through the establishment of the AAFC. Among them are, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, SaudiExim Bank, UNIDO ITPO office Bahrain, AIM Global Foundation, and the Arab Authority for Agricultural Investment and Development (AAAID).
The rest are the Public Investment Fund PIF, Halal Products Development Company, the Emirates Investment Authority, the Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA), the Investment Corporation of Dubai, the Qatar Investment Authority, the Oman Investment Authority, the Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC), and the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC).
Figures highlight ongoing severity of disease outbreak – expert
Ghana previously said 25.7% of total cocoa growing land infected
By Maytaal Angel
LONDON, July 18 (Reuters) -A major cocoa producing region in Ghana, the world’s second largest cocoa grower, is 81% infected with swollen shoot disease, according to the International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO).
Prices for the chocolate ingredient have roughly doubled this year because of adverse weather and disease in top cocoa producers Ghana and Ivory Coast, but hopes are rising for improved output next season.
The two countries together produce about 60% of the world’s cocoa.
Dashing output recovery hopes somewhat are the figures on bean disease in Western North, Ghana’s third largest cocoa region by output, which highlight the ongoing severity of the outbreak.
Swollen shoot virus first reduces yields before killing trees, usually within a few years. Once infected, trees must be ripped out and the soil treated before cocoa can be replanted.
According to the ICCO, Ghana’s Western North region covers an area of 410,229 hectares and has 330,456 hectares infected. The intergovernmental body was citing data from the Cocoa Health and Extension Division (CHED) of Cocobod, Ghana’s cocoa industry regulator.
In April, the chief executive of that industry regulator, Joseph Aidoo, told Reuters at an industry event that a total of 500,000 hectares were infected in the country at large – equivalent to 25.7% of Ghana’s 1.94 million hectares of cocoa growing land.
Another 100,000 hectares is unproductive due to aged trees, he said, and the country has so far treated a separate 100,000 hectares for swollen shoot. After rehabilitation, replanted trees take two to four years to mature and produce beans.
“Swollen shoot is clearly a serious problem that’s not improved in the last 12 months and is not going away,” said Steve Wateridge, a veteran world expert on cocoa and head of research at Tropical Research Services by Expana.
The ICCO said swollen shoot is also spreading in Ivory Coast, though authorities there have been more circumspect about revealing the extent of the outbreak publicly.
Wateridge previously told Reuters that up to 30% of Ivorian cocoa plantations were likely infected.
Ghana traditionally produces more than 800,000 tons of cocoa a year, but is expected to produce just over half that amount this season because of disease, aging trees, illegal gold mining, climate change and smuggling.
The Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) has revealed that about 80 percent of farmers have not been registered on the government’s Planting for Food and Jobs Programme Phase II (PFJ 2.0) as of June 2024.
The National President of the Association, Wepia Awal Addo, said the situation is worrying since the planting season is very close. He added that farmers are uncertain about their future, as they do not have an idea where and when to receive farm inputs such as fertilisers and seeds.
“As at June, around 80 percent of the farmers have not been registered and their farms have not been mapped. Which is a source of worry for us because the raining season has started. If you go to many places people are planting and they need the inputs to be able to grow food.” Mr. Addo said.
He made the revelation when the PFAG, in collaboration with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), hosted a national validation workshop for the assessment report on the implementation of the PFJ 2.0 on July 17, 2024 in Accra.
Mr. Addo said there appears to be a lack of interest in farmers’ welfare, particularly as farmers are not provided with any information to aid in planning.
Describing the PFJ Phase II as uninspiring, he stated that the agriculture sector has been neglected with no direct investment to farmers.
Mr. Addo pointed out for example that plans to expand irrigation projects and improve road networks have been left unattended to.
Purpose of the PFAG II The Planting for Food and Jobs Phase II (PFJ 2.0) was launched by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) in response to the challenges encountered during the programme’s initial phase.
The challenges included limited access to agricultural credit, insufficient adoption of the value chain approach, budgetary constraints on the government, and low prioritization of national food storage capacity.
Furthermore, issues such as smuggling, rent-seeking, and corruption were highlighted by PFAG’s annual assessment reports, leading to a significant call for a review of the programme.
The PFJ 2.0 aims to modernize the agricultural sector through the development of selected agricultural value chains for food crops, while promoting private sector participation.
This shift from direct input subsidy to a smart agriculture input credit system is designed to enhance food security, resilience, and export potential. The programme also seeks to create jobs among agriculture value chain actors.
The national validation workshop aims to validate the findings from these consultations and ensure that stakeholder feedback is incorporated into the final assessment report. The workshop featured presentations on the assessment findings, panel discussions, and interactive sessions to discuss and refine the recommendations.
The roll-out of PFJ 2.0 began in March 2024 with a registration process announced by the sector Minister. Despite the commencement, concerns have been raised about the timing, design, and implementation of the programme. The reliance on anchor farmers or aggregators for input and service provision, minimal central government involvement, and the late registration process have been points of contention among stakeholders.
In response, PFAG, with support from OXFAM, has undertaken an assessment of PFJ 2.0 to identify emerging issues, roll-out gaps, and propose solutions for maximizing programme output. Two stakeholder consultation workshops have been conducted in Tamale and Techiman, engaging farmers, input dealers, agricultural directors, and other relevant stakeholders from the Northern, Upper West, Upper East, North East, Ashanti, Ahafo, Bono, and Bono East regions. These consultations served to gather insights, sensitize farmers, and provide a platform for stakeholders to engage with the ministry on emerging issues.
About the Programme
“Sustainable Employment through Agribusiness (AgriBiz) in Ghana”.
The programme “Sustainable Employment through Agribusiness (AgriBiz) in Ghana” was commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Running from April 2021 until December 2025, the programme operates nationwide with a strong focus on promoting dynamic micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), both formal and informal, along with their Member Based Business Organizations (MBBOs) and business development service (BDS) provider.
The programme aims to strengthen the capacities of MSMEs and their associations to enable the private sector to create productive employment in the agribusiness sector.
Across the world, over 800 million people spend their days hungry. More than 2 billion have limited access to food. Yet today’s global food system produces enough to feed every person on the planet.
This imbalanced situation can be explained in part by the effects of things like natural disasters, war, fragile supply chains and economic inequality. These are all significant factors which highlight the problems of a truly global food system, where shocks spread quickly from one place to another with sometimes devastating results.
To account for these trends, we need to look at market concentration, and how a small number of very big companies have come to dominate the production and supply of the food we all eat.
For the global food system has become much more concentrated in recent years, partly through an increase in mergers and acquisitions, where large firms buy up rival companies until they completely dominate key areas.
High levels of market concentration mean less transparency, weaker competition, and more power in the hands of fewer firms. And our research reveals that a rise in the number of mergers and acquisitions is taking place at all stages of the global food system – from seeds and fertilisers to machinery and manufacturing.
This is all part of food being increasingly seen as a source not only of human sustenance, but as a profitable investment – or what is known as the “financialisation of food”.
And while people have been buying and selling food for a very long time, the global system has seen a major incursion of big finance in recent decades. Pension funds, private equity and asset management firms have invested heavily in the sector.
The logic is simple. Everybody needs food, so the sector promises safe and potentially lucrative returns.
But feeding the world while looking after the planet costs money, and unfortunately, big financial actors are all about the bottom line. They aim to maximise returns, provide value to shareholders, and meet the expectations of markets.
This makes mergers and acquisitions an attractive business proposition. Why make risky, long-term investments in sustainable food solutions, when you can buy your competitor, increase your market share, and potentially make a lot of money in the process? By boosting share prices and removing competition, buy-outs have been used widely throughout the global food system as an easier way to achieve further growth.
Hunger games
This has resulted in more concentration and fewer, more powerful firms. One report revealed that just four firms control 44% of the global farm machinery market, two companies control 40% of the global seed market, and four businesses control 62% of the global agrochemicals market. This trend is matched in food retail, with four firms – Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, and Morrisons – estimated to control over 64% of the UK grocery market.
This level of concentration and power affects everyone. It means less bargaining power for farmers, who are forced to negotiate with powerful conglomerates. Workers across key stages of the global food sector face downward pressures on wages, rights, and conditions. Local communities lose autonomy over how their land is cultivated and how the rewards are distributed.
And the negative effects are not limited to those working in food.
Fewer firms and less transparency can lead to higher prices. And research on Europe has shown that places with higher food market concentration, including the UK and Germany, sell more ultra-processed food.
The global food system also plays a big part in climate change. Too much corporate power limits the opportunities for communities to tackle environmental issues, and move towards sustainable provision of healthy food for everyone by producing more food themselves.
With so much at stake, improved regulation should surely be on the menu. Our research revealed the majority of food system mergers and acquisitions take place between firms of the same nationality. This could provide an opportunity for governments to prevent further market concentration within their borders – and even to seek to dilute what already exists.
International arrangements are more complicated, and would require a coordinated, international approach. However, this may prove difficult given the first-ever UN “food systems summit” in 2021 remained “strategically silent” on the issue.
We believe market concentration must become a defining feature of food system reform. To address climate change, provide a fair deal for workers, and eradicate hunger, we need power to be less corporate – for the benefit of the entire global community.
Ghana cocoa production reached 429,323 metric tons – or less than 55% of the average seasonal output – as harvesting neared completion at the end of June, data from marketing board Cocobod showed on Tuesday.
Disastrous harvests in Ghana and Ivory Coast – the world’s biggest producer – have driven up global cocoa prices since the start of the year. Together, the countries account for around 60% of global supply.
The bulk of Ghana’s cocoa harvest is usually completed by the end of June, and the Cocobod data roughly reflects this season’s main crop output for the world’s second largest producer.
Both of the leading producers have been hit by adverse weather conditions and tree disease, while Ghana’s cocoa production has also been hobbled the impacts of informal mining and smuggling.
The Cocobod data obtained by Reuters does not capture production that may have been trafficked out of the country illegally.
On June 21, Cocobod announced the start of Ghana’s light crop – the smaller of its two annual harvests – which typically contributes less than 10% of the full season’s production.
Ghana’s annual cocoa output averaged 800,000 tons over the last five seasons, according to International Cocoa Organization data, including a 2020/21 peak of over 1 million tons. But the Cocobod data reflects three successive seasons of decline.
The marketing board declined to provide equivalent production data through June of the two previous seasons. Full season output, however, was 683,269 tons in 2021/22 and 656,140 tons the last season.
Ghana’s two leading cocoa growing regions – Ashanti and Western South – have been the biggest contributors to the overall drop in production, the data showed.
Ashanti produced 103,976 tons of beans by the end of June, compared to a full season figure of 160,855 tons last season. Western South, meanwhile, recorded production of 96,810 tons by end-June, compared to 152,277 tons last season.
Reuters Graphics Reuters Graphics
Swollen shoot disease (CSSVD) and artisanal gold mining – known locally as galamsey – are largely responsible for the drop in production in the two regions, said Nana Kwesi Barning, coordinator of the Ghana Civil Society Cocoa Platform.
“Galamsey and CSSVD are massive in there, especially the galamsey, per our analysis,” he told Reuters.
Nana Johnson Mensah Kagya, a major farmer in the Western South region with around 80 hectares of plantations, said over half of his cocoa had to be cut down and replanted due to swollen shoot.
And illegal gold mining, he said, is drawing young men away from cocoa farming.
“If galamsey continues to exist, cocoa has no future. Because of the galamsey, you will not get anybody to work on the cocoa farm,” Kagya said.
The Western North and Western South regions along the border with Ivory Coast and the eastern Volta/Oti region next to Togo are all vulnerable to smuggling and their output has shrunk over the last three seasons.
Both Ghana and Ivory Coast sell forward their harvests. And this year’s giant production shortfall has meant Ghana’s Cocobod could not deliver enough cocoa to fulfil its contracts with exporters and traders.
Sources told Reuters last month that Ghana was looking to delay delivery of up to 350,000 tons of beans to the next season, though Cocobod denied the scale of the contract roll-overs.
Cocobod’s CEO has said he expects cocoa output to bounce back to over 800,000 tons in the next season due to open in October. Industry players and analysts, however, have said the target is too optimistic.
Ghana’s cocoa marketing board (Cocobod) made a GH¢2.3 billion ($149.84 million) profit in 2022/23, helped by the restructuring of its debt, the auditor general said in a report obtained by Reuters on Tuesday.
The report showed that the cocoa regulator posted its first profit after six straight years of losses.
Ghana, the world’s number two cocoa producer has been restructuring its $30 billion debt, including debt from the cocoa sector, to be able to implement a $3 billion, three-year International Monetary Fund program and recover from its worst economic crisis in a generation.
Last month, it finalised a deal with its official creditor committee and reached an agreement in principle with two bondholder groups to restructure around $13 billion of its debt, bringing it closer to the end of the debt overhaul.
These milestones followed a domestic debt programme in 2023 in which various bonds, including cocoa bills – securities issued to meet the short-term liquidity needs of Cocobod – were exchanged for long-dated instruments at lower yields.
Cocobod “ended the year with a profit of 2.3 billion cedi, compared with a loss of 4.2 billion cedi in 2022,” said the auditor general report on public corporations and boards yet to be published.
Ray Ankrah, deputy CEO of Cocobod, said the recovery was largely on the back of the debt restructuring.
“There were huge financing costs; we were paying something in the range of 34% but it’s now down to 13% (after the restructuring),” he said.
Ankrah said surging global cocoa prices, increased bean sales, currency stability and better cost management also helped.
The audit report said Cocobod’s revenue increased by 41.7% to 17.7 billion cedi in 2023 due to increased cocoa bean sales.
The report said Cocobod would still struggle to meet its short-term financial obligations as it lacked sufficient liquidity.
Many Ghanaians will experience hunger and malnutrition by 2030 due to anticipated drop in national fish production, Professor Berchie Asiedu, the Dean, School of Natural Resources, University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) has hinted.
He said the nation’s fish consumption was expected to reach 888,096 tonnes by 2030; however, total fish production was anticipated to constitute only about 43 per cent of the total fish requirement.
“This clearly shows that demand for fish consumption is expected to outweigh the national supply,” Prof Asiedu explained.
At the current growth rate, per capita fish consumption is predicted to decline from 28 kg in 2018 to 23.9 kg in 2030, Prof Asiedu, stated saying, “fish consumption would increase, but people would be eating less fish.”
Prof Asiedu made this known when speaking on a research update session, organised by the School of Natural Resources of the University in Sunyani on the theme “Managing our Natural Resources: Academia-Industry Partnership for Sustainable National Development.”
The session was attended by natural resources experts.
Prof Asiedu explained that as the cheapest and most consumed animal protein (60 percent) in the country, fish demand had increased rapidly over the past few years, growing from 960,000 tonnes in 2010 to 1.1 million tonnes in 2020.
Within the same period, per capita fish consumption increased from 24.2 kg to 27.9 kg at a rate of 1.6 percent per annum.
Following the gaps in the trends of production and consumption, Prof Asiedu called for an urgent need for policies to accelerate aqua-culture development in the country.
He also underlined the importance of ensuring general improvement in the fisheries management practices, as well as exploration of adaptive strategies and thereby improve the adaptive capacity of fishers to climate change.
Later in an interview, Mr. Hanson Kodzo Dzamefe, the Bono Regional Director of the Fisheries Commission, expressed concern about the nation’s over-reliance on marine fishes, and called for private sector collaboration to develop the nation’s aqua-culture sector.
He said aquaculture had huge potential for job creation and food security, saying the inland fishing value chain could create millions of jobs if investments were put into the sector.
Mr Dzamefe said aquaculture remained a lucrative business, and therefore, called on the unemployed youth and graduates to engage in commercial fish production to better their lots and advance national food security too.
Ghana is currently ranked 6th in Africa with the highest food inflation.
According to the World Bank’s Food Security Update, Ghana’s food inflation of 22.6% in May 2024 put it at that position.
Malawi and Nigeria came 1st and 2nd with food inflation of 40.7% respectively.
Sierra Leone (32.4%), Egypt (31.0%), Ethiopia (25.5%), Angola (18.5%) and Zambia (16.2%) were ranked 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th and 8th respectively.
According to the World Bank, several African countries are still grappling with the continuous burden of excessive inflation, particularly high food inflation.
“Domestic food price inflation remains high in many low- and middle-income countries. Inflation higher than 5% is experienced in 59.1% of low-income countries (no change since the last update on May 30, 2024), 63% of lower-middle-income countries (no change), 36% of upper-middle-income countries (5.0 percentage points higher), and 10.9 percent of high-income countries (3.6 percentage points lower)”.
Characterised by a continuous increase in the general price level of goods and services, it has various serious consequences for any country that experiences it. In addition to this issue, the one area where inflation has the most impact is on food.
The high food inflation can have serious repercussions in African nations where food accounts for a major quantity of family expenses.
The rising food costs increases the risks of hunger and malnutrition.
