Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Dr Randy Abbey, has disclosed that the board was unable to fulfil cocoa supply contracts totalling 333,767 tonnes during the 2023/2024 cocoa season, describing the situation as unprecedented in the institution’s history.

Speaking in an interview on Channel One TV on February 9, 2026, Dr Abbey explained that the cocoa had already been sold to buyers at an average price of about US$2,600 per tonne but could not be delivered as agreed.

He noted that the undelivered quantities were rolled over into subsequent seasons at the same contract price, creating severe financial strain for COCOBOD at a time when global cocoa prices had surged to between US$9,000 and US$12,000 per tonne.

Buyers shun Ghana's cocoa over high prices – COCOBOD laments

This meant the board had to use cocoa purchased at significantly higher prices to honour older, lower-priced contracts, resulting in heavy losses.

Dr Abbey added that the situation was further compounded by the collapse of COCOBOD’s syndicated loan arrangement during the 2023/2024 season.

Efforts to secure financing for the 2024/2025 season also failed after banks declined to respond to the board’s request for proposals, citing doubts about cocoa supply. As a result, the outstanding contracts were rolled over once again at the original price of US$2,600 per tonne.

“In 2023/2024, COCOBOD failed to honour 333,767 tonnes of cocoa that it had sold to buyers at an average of US$2,600. It could not supply them, the first time in the history of COCOBOD. These were rollovers priced at US$2,600 that we inherited at a time when cocoa prices had shot up.

“Cocoa prices were then at US$12,000, US$11,000, US$10,000 and US$9,000. That was also when the syndicated loan collapsed. In 2024/2025, COCOBOD issued a request for proposals, and the banks did not respond because they did not believe the cocoa could be supplied. So the contracts were rolled over again at US$2,600,” he said.

Dr Abbey further disclosed that COCOBOD incurred additional losses because the producer price paid to farmers during that period stood at about US$3,100 per tonne, exceeding the contract price by roughly US$500 per tonne.

“We even ended up making losses because the producer price paid to farmers was US$3,100,” he noted.

According to him, COCOBOD managed to clear approximately 235,000 tonnes of the outstanding contracts within the first year, representing nearly two-thirds of the total volume.

However, he stressed that the scale of the challenge remains enormous, as the undelivered cocoa represented more than half of the estimated annual production of 600,000 tonnes.

“For every tonne used to service these contracts, there was a shortfall of US$500. And we are not talking about 30,000 or 50,000 tonnes. We are talking about 333,767 tonnes, more than 50 per cent of expected annual production,” he said.

AK/MA

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