The Chief Executive for the Ghana Cocobod, Mr Joseph Boahen Aidoo has disclosed government’s decision to still pay the price cocoa farmers are getting for a tonne of beans they produce.
Mr Bohen said the decision to maintain the same price was done in consultation with all relevant bodies in the Cocoa industry as well as the farmers.
Addressing the media in Kumasi after a consultation forum with regional and district farmers on ways to check smuggling of fertilizers and cocoa beans, the CEO noted government’s desire to give same price to farmers despite the fall of the crop on the world market.
Currently, the CEO mentioned the price for cocoa on the world market was between 1,900 and 1, 800 per tonne.
This new price on the market, the CEO intimated was about 1,000 dollars lower than what pertained previously where a tonne of the beans was around 2,900 dollars last year.
FERTILIZER ISSUES:
Announcing a new price for a bag cocoa fertilizer which now stands at GHC 171.00 cedis, Mr Aidoo said government intends to stop hoarding and the sale of the free fertilizers to foreigners.
According to him, investigations had revealed that some assigns of the previous administration hoarded the fertilizer meant for farmers in the country for onward sale to foreign farmers.
Some, he alleged traveled as far as Cameroun and Gabon to sell the fertilizers which were to be distributed freely to cocoa farmers.
To curb this, Mr Boahen Aidoo indicated government’s decision to avoid of hoarding by offering the fertilizer for sale at a highly subsidized rate of 53%.
Government, the CEO posited was selling the fertilizer at a cost so that no one takes advantage of it being free to milk the country by selling it into neighboring countries.
RESPONSE:
Speaking on behalf of the regional and district cocoa farmers association, Nana Kwabena Nicholas, regional chief farmer for Western North lauded government’s effort to pay same price to them despite the drop of cocoa on the world market.
He believed this positive move would also spur farmers on to continue the cultivation of the crop in large volumes to ensure the country records a million tonnes the next crop season.
He stressed the importance of engaging with farmers on plans and policies government intends to implement and asked that this continues so as to help them to be abreast with the pressing issues in the cocoa industry.
He, however, pleaded with government to check the rate at which some farmers were smuggling the country’s beans to neighboring countries, adding that this affects the total crop production on a year round.
