We expected a higher price for cocoa than this - Huni Valley District chief farmer

Correspondence from Western Region

The Chief farmer of Huni Valley District, Nana Boakye has indicated that cocoa
farmers expected more than what the government announced as the price of a
bag of cocoa.

At the opening of the 2023/2024 cocoa season, the government increased the
cocoa price from GHC800GHC to GHC1,308.

Some Ghanaians praised the government for the increment, an indication that the
government has cocoa farmers at heart.

But speaking in an interview with GhanaWeb, the Chief farmer of Huni Valley
District noted that the farmers expected more than that from the COCOBOD.

He said, “We expected the price to go up to GHC2000.00 and not GHC1,300, so if
at least the government gave us GHC 1,500.00, that would have been fair”.

According to Nana Boakye, “The price of cocoa was generally low in the world last year and this has affected farmers a lot and so since the price has gone up at the world market, we expected more so that the hardship our farmers have endured in the previous years would have been compensated with a good price”.

He noted that the price of farm inputs like fuel, agro-inputs, goods, and services have gone up drastically which has left farmers very poor.

“As farmers, we do not have any control over cocoa prices, but producers of other products have the power to increase their products anytime they want and this is affecting farmers”, he said.

He stated that this new price would bring controversy between farmers and
purchasing clerks, noting that “per the new price a kilo of cocoa will be sold for GHC20.44, the clerks will not pay exactly that if the farmer’s cocoa is less than 64kg".

He expressed fear that purchasing clerks will cheat farmers.

Nana Boakye called on the government to treat cocoa farmers well so that they will sell their cocoa to the neighboring country, Cote D’Ivoire which has good prices for cocoa farmers.

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