The Ghana COCOBOD has rejected claims that the increase in producer price of cocoa from 425 cedis to 475 cedis per bag is not good enough.
According to COCOBOD, the new price was reached after broader consultation with all stakeholders including the farmers.
Speaking to Citi Business News, the Communications Manager at COCOBOD Noah Amenyah said COCOBOD was not interested in short-changing farmers in the country.
“If you check, people envy the system that we are running here, go to Ivory Coast [during] the light crop their farmers will be receiving less but our farmers will still be enjoying the same amount here. This is FOB price it is not that we buy and sell and make profit, so let not anyone mention any figure out of their mind and think that we must pay,” he said.
“A lot of things go into this it is not a local market. This is international market we are talking about and a lot of things going in to decide what an acceptable price is” he added.
Mr. Amenyah disclosed that the input of relevant bodies such as farmers, COCOBOD, and the Ministry of Finance were included in the deliberations.
“We had the farmers involved, the Bank of Ghana, the Ministry of Finance and COCOBOD as stakeholders in the discussion of the best price”, he said.
Mr. Amenyah contended that Ghana’s producer price of cocoa is currently higher than that of Ivory Coast.
“It’s unfortunate that the farmer should get this increase, then someone sits somewhere without looking at the international market prices and the implication and just say it should have been 500 cedis why not more” he said.
His comments come after some farmers in the Ashanti region expressed disappointment in government and the board, describing the new producer price of cocoa as a paltry sum.
The Ministry of Finance over the weekend announced a 11.76 percent increase in the producer price for the 2016/2017 farming season, which increases a 64kg bag of cocoa beans from 425 cedis to 475 cedis per bag.
The increase, according to the Finance Ministry is expected to take immediate effect, which means farmers will receive about ¢475 for every 64kg bag of cocoa beans.
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By: Norvan Acquah – Hayford/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
