The Producer Price Review Committee on cocoa has maintained the Producer Price of the commodity for 2021/2022 season at GHS10,560 per tonne .
Effective Friday, October 8, 2021, the maintained producer price indicates that a bag of cocoa remains GHS660 per 64 kilogram gross weight.
According to the Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, who also serves as the Chairman of the Review Committee, “this price represents 87.15% of the net FOB; price at the ports”.
The previous 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.
However, the change in producer price of the commodity last year to GHS10,560 per tonne represented a 28 percentage increase over the price obtained in the outgoing crop year of 2019/2020.
The maintenance of this amount this year comes at a time when cocoa producing countries are contemplating a reduction in their farm gate prices following a slump in the terminal cocoa market as a result of COVID-19.
‘This price is the highest within the sub-region. This demonstrates Government’s commitment to sustain the interest of the cocoa farmer in producing cocoa and also to improve the well-being of cocoa farmers,” the sector Minister added at the press conference on Friday, October 1.
Touching on the Living Income Differential, Dr. Afriyie Akoto appraised the government’s effort in improving the welfare of cocoa farmers in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire.
“It is significant to note that today, cocoa farmers in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire are better-off than their counterparts in other cocoa producing countries as a result of this Ghana-Cote d’Ivoire initiative.”
The Minister further announced the implementation of the Cocoa Farmer’s pension scheme in the next crop season.