The public affairs director of Ghana’s government-linked Cocobod organisation has proposed extensive penalties in a bid to tackle concerning levels of cocoa crop destruction, proposing major $50,000 fines for each tree removed, writes Neill Barston.

Notably, the planned legislation, first reported by Sam Poku of the region’s Cocoa Media hub, comes amid a sector-wide re-organisation designed to address an ongoing crisis for the industry, that has seen volatile prices, disease hit plantations across the region, as well as climate change and underlying levels of poverty combine to place significant strain on what has been a vital agricultural commodity for the country.

Speaking at a meeting in Accra, Ghana, organised by Send Ghana and the Ghana Civil Society Cocoa Platform, Jerome put forward the proposals for considerable fines for cocoa crop removal in a bid to prevent further major losses to the sector.

As Confectionery Production has previously reported, charting precise levels of crop destruction has historically been extremely hard to track in previous decades – but with the advent of geospatial satellite monitoring that has now coming into fruition in the past few years, fuller tracking of forest loss is possible, with the government recognising the crop’s importance to the country’s overall economy.

Critically, as research from the Mighty Earth non-profit organisation has found, over the past 60 years, Ivory Coast has lost a staggering total of 94% of its primary forest (and Ghana some 80%, to commercial activity including the logging sector, and other markets including for cocoa production.

There has also been a notable rise in illegal gold and mineral mining, known locally as Galamsey (gather them and sell), which has had significant negative impact, as impoverished farmers have felt compelled to sell their land.

Cocoa sector restructuring   
Ongoing challenges facing agricultural sectors in Ghana and Ivory Coast remain high on the agenda for the region, including prospects for an El Nino autumn, which could further impact an already deeply troubled industry.

As previously reported, farmers have felt the major strain of having had their pay cut between 40-60% across Ivory Coast and Ghana this Spring – a move decided by the country’s respective governments, in response to a rapid collapse in commodities prices collapses over the past 12 months. This saw values tumble from $12, 000 a tonne at the beginning of January 2025, to not much over $3,000 earlier this year, before rallying slightly over the past few months.

Government reaction
In response, the governments of Ghana and Ivory Coast have proposed wider moves to help reshape the industries that they have controlled for decades. Among the primary proposals has been extending cooperative work to neighbouring cocoa growing nations including Cameroon and Nigeria, to form a broader regional production hub. There are also plans to shift away from a trend of simply exporting unprocessed beans, and moving towards greater levels of regional manufacturing to preserve greater levels of commercial value in their cocoa crops. 

Significantly, the chief  executive of Ghana Cocoa Board, Dr. Ransford Anertey Abbey has stated that the region intends to change policy from annual syndicated loans that have dominated the market in the region, to a model of domestic fundraising to promote greater efficiency. 

As Cocobod noted, the group’s leader put forward the notion at a meeting with  Ghana’s International Bank (GHIB), discussing funding models for the 2026/27 Crop Year.

Abbey said indications are clear that Ghana can no longer rely entirely on the over three-decade-old cocoa syndicated loan facility. He cited its exposure to world cocoa price volatility, climate uncertainty, and the model’s failure to support domestic value addition due to locking up nearly 80% of cocoa output.

He confirmed that fund advisors and managers have been engaged to work out the modalities for utilizing pension funds and cedi-denominated commercial papers/notes to fund cocoa purchases.

“The shift in policy in this regard forms part of the government’s wider cocoa sector reform agenda to raise money domestically for cocoa operations,” he is reported to have stated on its strategy for dealing with the ongoing crisis that has gripped the industry.

In his view the new funding model would prove to be a success and free it from being locked into a financial system that no longer worked in its favour amid rapid fluctuating market conditions around the globe.