With improved weather and enhanced efforts to combat crop disease, Ghana's agriculture minister Bryan Acheampong agreed on Wednesday (11 September) with the review committee to raise the price from 33,120 cedis per metric ton to 48,000 cedis ($3,070) for the 2024-25 season.
The increase raises the payment for a 64-kilogramme bag of cocoa beans to $192, up from $132.
The farmgate price represents a 129% increase from the opening price of $1,335 per tonne for the 2023-2024 season.
Acheampong told local media that the price increase is unprecedented at the launch of Ghana’s 2024-25 cocoa season, brought forward from October.
Cross-border smuggling
Ghana has decided to increase the farmgate price to combat smuggling and illegal cross-border sales. This will allow farmers to reinvest in their cocoa farms and increase production.
Market analysts predict neighbouring Cote d’Ivoire will implement a similar price increase next month as part of an agreement between the world’s two largest cocoa suppliers to coordinate farmgate prices and cocoa supplies to help sustain the sector and boost their farmers' incomes.
Disappointment from cocoa farmers
The Ghana Civil-Society Cocoa Platform (GCCP) said it was "highly disappointed" with the price increase, and it was way below its expectations. Ghana’s cocoa farmers' groups are pushing for a +65% increase, and some farmers have threatened to hoard beans in the hopes of even higher prices.
They suggest the minimum farmgate price should be increased to Ghc 3,583 per bag (64kg) and Ghc 57,320 per tonne of cocoa beans, as against the current Ghc 2,070 per bag and Ghc 33,130 per tonne.
Writing on LinkedIn moments after the announcement, IssakaIssifu Issaka, a farmers’ advocate campaigner said: “We totally reject this price. And we request that the government should come back again. Even to exclude LID (Living Income Difference), which is $400 per tone. The government is taking 51% and will give 49% to the farmers.
“We totally reject it. We will leave the cocoa beans to rot at the farm. Cocoa farmers can not be cheated to that level.”
Illegal gold mining
Along with weather challenges, disease, inadequate farm management, and smuggling, Ghana's cocoa harvest has declined recently due to galamsey (illegal gold mining).
Data from Ghana’s cocoa regulator, Cocobod, has revealed that more than 19,000 hectares of cocoa farms [equivalent to 35,849 football fields] have been destroyed by galamsey.
At the press conference in Accra, Acheampong also confirmed that Cocobod has enough funds to buy crops from farmers this season without raising a syndicated loan.
The agriculture minister also said he expects cocoa production in Ghana to exceed the previous target of 650,000 metric tons, which he described as “too conservative.”