After long discussions between producers and managers, Ghanaian cocoa farmers obtained better selling prices for the beans. But their situation remains fragile.
This is not the expected increase, but Ghanaian cocoa farmers, after intense lobbying, will experience a better season than last year. The Ghana Cocoa Board (Cocobod) had, according to Africa Intelligence, announced that it would not return from the farm gate price paid to cocoa farmers in the country. However, in Ghana, the crisis has taken on worrying proportions: the cedi, the local currency, has continued to lose value since the beginning of the year, going so far as to melt like snow in the sun the foreign exchange reserves and causing inflation.
The stakes of the discussions between federations of cocoa farmers and Cocobod were therefore considerable: how to better remunerate producers when the institution in charge of the cocoa sector in Ghana risks getting into trouble? It all started last Monday with the signing of a $1,13 billion syndicated loan agreement. To replenish its coffers, the organization called on some twenty financial institutions. And he had to be persuasive, after a difficult season in which cocoa production fell to 689 tons. The lowest total for twelve years.
Ivory Coast as a model
These difficulties associated with those of the cedi, which has lost more than 30% of its value since the beginning of the year, have been unfavorable to Cocobod which, in addition, has had to manage the anger of the 800 cocoa farmers, supported by elected officials. of the ruling New Patriotic Party. Especially since Côte d'Ivoire had decided on September 000 to increase the farm gate price paid to cocoa farmers by 30%, now reaching 9 CFA francs per kilogram.
Under pressure, the agriculture minister Frimpong Yaw Addo ended up receiving the Producer Price Review Committee (PPRC), which brings together representatives of Cocobod and the Ghana Cocoa Coffee Sheanut Association (COCOSHE). The body and the federations finally reached an agreement. Africa Intelligence indicates that it was the Minister of Agriculture and Food, Owusu Afriyie Akoto, who therefore finally decided to increase the price of a bag of beans by 21%, from 660 to 800 cedis for 64 kilograms .
We are still far from the 1 cedis per bag demanded by the producers, who took inflation into account. But it is a first victory for them, while the Ghanaian government assured not wanting to revise its tariffs upwards.