The Ghana COCOBOD today announced the opening of the 2017 light crop cocoa season.
A statement from COCOBOD and copied to Citi Business News indicated that the purchases of cocoa beans will also begin today.
According to COCOBOD, the producer price to be paid at all buying centres is GH¢475.00 for every 64 kilograms bag of cocoa.
This also translates into GH¢7,600 cedis per tonne of cocoa.
Today’s announcement also follows a recent report by COCOBOD to cut down about 40 percent of cocoa trees due to the impact of swollen shoot disease.
In May this year, COCOBOD announced 53% slash in the price of fertilizers for cocoa farmers.
According to COCOBOD, the new policy directive by management is aimed at enhancing access to cocoa fertilizers to improve yield and incomes of cocoa farmers.
Speaking to Citi Business News in an interview, the Public Relations Manager at COCOBOD, Noah Amenya explained that “a bag of the granular fertilizer is now being offered to cocoa farmers at GH¢ 80.00, while a litre of the Liquid fertilizer is GH¢20.00, representing subsidies of 53.4% and 81.03%respectively”.
Mr. Amenya explained that previously, the average purchase price per bag of granular fertilizer was GH¢171.75 while a litre of Liquid fertilizer was GH¢105.00.
Per the directive, COCOBOD has urged all cocoa farmers to insist on buying the fertilizers at the subsidized price from Cocoa Licensed Buying Companies (LBCs), Cocoa Inputs Companies, Offices of Cocoa Farmers’ Associations and Private Inputs Distributors across the country.
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By: Pius Amihere Eduku/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
