Ghana is said to have lost about $1billion in cocoa revenue during the last six months.

This was as a result of the fall in global cocoa prices from $3000 a tonne to about $2000. Ghana and the Ivory Coast, which together produce about 60 per cent of world cocoa, have begun collaborating to find solutions to the challenges of the cocoa sector in these two countries.

Speaking to Class Business on the sidelines of the second meeting of the Ghana-Ivory Coast technical cooperation on cocoa, COCOBOD CEO Joseph Boahene Aidoo said the collaborations would help in ensuring that the two economies benefit more in the production of cocoa.

The two countries, according to Mr Aidoo, will be discussing “training systems, we are looking at marketing cocoa, we are looking at production, control of stock, even determination of producer prices”, adding: “This is because when prices fall in the international market, you find cocoa coming to Ghana because it is difficult to seal the borders completely and when prices are going up then you have cocoa moving from Ghana to Cote d’Ivoire and all these things don’t help. So if we are able to harmonise even our price determination for the farmers, we will be able to bring down or stem the tide of smuggling.”

The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, was hopeful the meetings between the two countries would help find ways of processing cocoa for export.