By Nana Takyi Quainoo

Cocoa smuggling activities from Ghana to neighbouring countries has been one of the greatest headaches to Ghana and its economy. Year in year out we hear stories of rampant cocoa smuggling across the country’s borders. No single government of Ghana’s past history has been able to find a lasting solution to this bleeding wound to the country’s economy.

It is interesting to note that even though past governments have adopted various strategies to arrest or curtail the situation, none of those approaches have worked to stem the cocoa smuggling tide. Reason being that moneys offered by neighbouring countries especially Ivory Coast for a bag of cocoa had always exceeded what Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) paid to farmers in Ghana.

As a result of this smuggling activities, the COCOBOD had found it extremely difficult to meet its annual production target. Therefore, in a view to balance the equation by encouraging farmers to sell their cocoa to Ghana, the government came out with a new price for a tonnage of cocoa effective October 1, 2010. The new tonnage price of cocoa, which is pegged at 3,200 Ghana Cedis, represents a whopping 33.3 percent increase when compared to the previous price of 2,400 Ghana Cedis.

It is gratifying to note that only last week the COCOBOD was able to raise $1.5 billion from international banks to purchase cocoa for this coming crop season. But it is equally good news for Ghanaians to know that for the first time the COCOBOD was able to raise more money than it needed. The international banks gave the COCOBOD $1.8 billion, therefore $300,000 had to be returned to the banks since COCOBOD needed only $1.5 billion.

The sound policies that are being pursued by the management of the COCOBOD headed by Mr. Anthony Fofie and the government as a whole is paying off hence the confidence being exhibited by the international banks. The COCOBOD, which is expecting an increase of 69,000 tonnes of cocoa during this crop season, is aiming to buy about 700,000 tonnes from the farmers. According to COCOBOD’s CEO, Mr. Fofie, if the smuggling activities are stemmed and the organization is fully resourced by the government, his outfit would be able to meet one million tonne production target.

In announcing the new price of cocoa, Dr. Kwabena Duffour, Minister for Finance and Economic Planning stated that the government is working out bonuses to be paid to the cocoa farmers in December, while Mr. Fofie also announced that the COCOBOD has engaged the services of financial experts to work out the modalities of a pension scheme for the cocoa farmers. All these policies are being geared to encourage the cocoa farmers to sell their cocoa to Ghana in order to help boost the economy.

The new tonnage price of cocoa has been reported to be the same price offered by the government of Ivory Coast to its cocoa farmers. This marks the first time in Ghana’s history where the price paid for a bag of cocoa is the same price offered by Ivory Coast. Mr. Fofie who was very optimistic about the boost that COCOBOD will get as a result of the new cocoa price was sad that Ghana continues to lose huge sums of moneys due to the smuggling activities of some unpatriotic Ghanaians. What is worrying is that even though the COCOBOD spends millions of Cedis annually to spray the cocoa trees free of charge some of these farmers do not care a hoot hence their decision to resort to smuggling which robs the country of the much needed foreign exchange for development.

It is based upon all these that I want to congratulate the government and COCOBOD for making the smart move in pegging the price of a bag of cocoa as the same price as it prevails in Ivory Coast. Even though this move would not completely eliminate smuggling, I think it is a positive thing that would go a long way in bringing the smuggling activities to the barest minimum.

I urge Mr. Fofie to work tirelessly with his team to come out with other incentive packages to cocoa farmers that would make smuggling activities less and less attractive. No one needs to emphasize that the less the smuggling of cocoa the better for COCOBOD and the country as a whole.

Kudos, COCOBOD for a good work done!

ntquainoo@yahoo.com