The President, Nana Akufo-Addo has announced a new producer price for cocoa for the 2020/2021 crop season.
Effective October 1, 2020, the new producer price is pegged at GHS10,560 per metric tonne of cocoa indicating that a bag of cocoa is now GHS660.
The current price per 64kg bag of cocoa, which stands at GHS514 had earlier been increased by 8.2 percent from GHS475 per bag.
The President made this announcement at the launch of the National Cocoa Rehabilitation Programme at Sefwi Wiawso in the Western North region today, September 24, 2020.
“Nananom, beginning 1st October 2020, I am happy to announce the award of a new cocoa producer price of GHS10,560 per metric ton, equivalent to GHS660 per bag for the coming 2020/2021 crop year. This represents a hike of more than 28 percent over the price obtained in the outgoing crop year of 2019/2020.”
The current 2019/2020 producer price of GHS8,240 per metric tonne, equivalent to GHS514 per bag, was an 8.2 percent increase over the 2018/2019 price of GHS7,615, equivalent to GHS475 per bag.
“By this new producer price, we have kept faith with our commitment, under the international arrangement with Côte d’Ivoire and global stakeholders, by awarding to our farmers the full US$400 per metric tonne Living Income Differential (LID),” Akufo-Addo added.
The President continued, “By this substantial increase in the producer price, we are also delivering on our 2016 manifesto promise to reward handsomely the hard work of our cocoa farmers and their unequalled contribution to the economy of Ghana over the years.”
Living Income Differential
Touching on the unstable nature of cocoa prices on the world cocoa market, President Akufo-Addo stated that “it remains one of the biggest challenges to ensuring payment of decent farm-gate prices to our cocoa farmers”.
With Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire responsible for 65 percent of the raw cocoa beans used in making chocolates, the President bemoaned the fact that cocoa farmers from the two countries just US$6 billion from an over US$100 billion chocolate industry.
This, he explained, is the meagre return that hardworking farmers get from their toil.
“Government believes that value-addition to our cocoa, and the search for new markets, will make us more money than all the aid given to us by all the donor countries. We shall gain some dignity, and spare the donors the fatigue we have all heard about,” he added.
This, according to President Akufo-Addo, is the rationale for the Strategic Partnership between Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana, the common initiative of His Excellency President Alassane Ouattara of Cote d’Ivoire and himself, which is manifesting itself in a joint cocoa production and marketing policy, and which is already paying dividends.
“Today, I am happy to announce that Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire are receiving a Living Income Differential of US$400 per tonne of cocoa, which is an additional earning from the world market price for our farmers. The Living Income Differential is going to guarantee some stability to the producer price of cocoa and sustainability of the industry in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire,” the President said.