Bid to deter cocoa smuggling

Ghana has sharply raised the price it will pay cocoa farmers for the new 2014-2015 season in a bid to deter smuggling to Ivory Coast, Reuters has reported.

The rise represents a 63 per cent increase on the price cocoa regulator Cocobod paid last season. It is also slightly higher than the price the world’s top producer, Ivory Coast, announced this week that it would pay to its farmers for the new season.

Ghana, the world’s second biggest producer, will aim to produce more than one million tonnes in the season, up from a forecast of 900,000 tonnes in the just-ended season, according to Cocobod chief executive Stephen Opuni.

“Smuggling has always been a problem when there are price differentials between the two countries,” Opuni told a news conference. “The fact that our price is better now (means that) I don’t think cocoa will be smuggled from Ghana.”

In the past, cocoa farmers particularly in the west of the country have loaded their produce onto lorries to take over the border to secure higher prices but Opuni said better security and the higher prices would stop this practice.

Opuni said the new price was also aimed at motivating farmers and attracting new workers to a sector that many young people have left in recent years to move to cities.

Related content

Leave a reply

Confectionery Production