The recent announcement by the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) proposing a new law to impose a 10-year jail term, fines of up to 200,000 penalty units, and the establishment of a special cocoa tribunal to deal with cocoa smuggling raises serious concerns, particularly considering the painful realities cocoa farmers have endured throughout the 2025/2026 cocoa season.

Without doubt, cocoa smuggling is a challenge that must be addressed. Ghana’s cocoa industry remains a critical pillar of the national economy, and efforts to protect it are understandable. COCOBOD’s investments in research, extension services, disease control, farm inputs, pesticides, and fungicides are acknowledged and appreciated.

However, any attempt to criminalise cocoa smuggling with severe punishments must first confront the failures within the cocoa purchasing system itself.

The 2025/2026 cocoa season has been one of the most difficult periods for cocoa farmers in recent history. Across the cocoa-growing communities, farmers have been turned away by Licensed Buying Companies (LBCs) due to lack of funds. In many cases, cocoa was purchased from farmers but payments delayed for weeks and, reportedly, sometimes up to five months.

This situation is unacceptable.

The cocoa farmer depends on prompt payment not merely for comfort, but survival. Farmers rely on cocoa proceeds to pay school fees, settle medical bills, support their families, and reinvest into their farms. When the system fails to pay farmers after taking delivery of their cocoa, it creates desperation and loss of confidence in the very institutions mandated to protect them.

It is therefore difficult to understand why, at a time when COCOBOD and some LBCs have struggled to fulfill their core obligation of promptly purchasing and paying for cocoa, the priority appears to be harsher punishment for farmers and others who may resort to cross-border sales in search of immediate payment.

If the state seeks to punish acts deemed contrary to the cocoa laws, then the state itself must equally comply with its obligations under the COCOBOD Law, 1984 (PNDC Law 81), which places responsibility on COCOBOD to ensure the purchase and marketing of all cocoa produced in Ghana.

The relationship between the cocoa farmer and COCOBOD must not become one-sided, where the farmer is punished swiftly, but institutional failures carry no consequences.

A farmer who has waited months without payment cannot reasonably be treated as a criminal for seeking alternative means to meet urgent family and economic needs. The solution to cocoa smuggling cannot be punishment alone. It must begin with restoring trust in the cocoa purchasing system through:

• Prompt and guaranteed payment to farmers;
• Reliable availability of funds to Licensed Buying Companies;
• Fair producer pricing;
• Improved transparency in cocoa purchases; and
• Greater accountability within COCOBOD itself.

Before Parliament considers imposing a 10-year prison sentence on cocoa-related offences, equal urgency must be given to addressing the hardship, uncertainty, and financial distress currently confronting Ghanaian cocoa farmers.

Protecting Ghana’s cocoa industry must go hand in hand with protecting the dignity and livelihood of the cocoa farmer.

A policy that threatens punishment without first ensuring fairness risks deepening frustration within cocoa-growing communities and undermining confidence in the cocoa sector itself.

The cocoa farmer deserves justice too.