Cocoa price increase

The producer price of cocoa for the 2012 / 2013 season has been increased from GH¢3,280 per tonne to GH¢3,392 per tonne.


Thus, 64 kilogrammes of cocoa will now sell at GH¢212 and not the GH¢205 that it was in the previous cocoa season.

The new price represents about 78.42 per cent of cocoa prices free-on-board (FOB), estimated at about GHc4,325. The prices take effect from Friday, October 12.

This is the fourth consecutive time since 2009 that the producer price for cocoa has been increased. The price rose from GH¢75 per a 64 kilogramme bag of cocoa in the 2007/2008 cocoa season to the present GH¢212 per bag in the 2012/2013 season.

The Minister of Finance, Dr Kwabena Duffuor, announced the new price at a news conference in Accra today (12/10/112).

Dr Duffuor said the upward review in the price comes at the back of falling cocoa prices in the world market. Cocoa prices have fallen from US$3,000 in the 2011/2012 cocoa season to currently average at a little over US$2,300.

Dr Duffuor, who is also the Chairman of the Producer Price Review Committee (PPRC), said the government remained committed to ensuring that the welfare of cocoa farmers is continuously enhanced.

“In fulfillment of this commitment, government has decided to reduce its share of the 2012/2013 cocoa export duty in order to raise the producer price paid to our hardworking cocoa farmers. This decision was taken to increase the earnings of farmers so as to enhance their welfare,” the minister said.

He emphasised that government would continue to support interventions in the cocoa sector, including the pests and disease control (mass spraying) for farmers and Hi-Tech programmes to ensure that the envious record of the Ghanaian cocoa industry is sustained.

Although global prices of cocoa has been unstable over the past four years, the producer price of the crop in the country has been consistently, a move government said is in line with his desire to fairly reward cocoa farmers in the country.

In the 2007 / 2008 cocoa season, the producer price of cocoa was GH¢75 per bag of 64 kilogramme. This was increased to GH¢102 per bag in 2008 / 09. In 2010/11, the producer price was increased from GH¢102 per bag of 64 kg to GH¢200 per bag of 64kg.

However, by 2011 / 2012 the price per bag had risen to GH¢205, representing over a 100 per cent increase in three years.

Also, during the 2008/09 crop year, government set up a Stabilisation Fund with annual contributions from the FOB price as a risk mitigating mechanism against a fall in international cocoa prices.

The primary objective of the fund was to apply it to sustain the earnings of cocoa farmers in challenging times like it is being witnessed during this 2012 /13 cocoa season. Meanwhile, Dr Duffuor said the Stabilisation Fund (SF) has been applied accordingly.

Other rates and fees for stakeholders in the cocoa sector include the buyers’ margin, haulers’ rate, warehousing and internal marketing costs as well as fees for disinfestations, grading and sealing.

The margins rates and charges were maintained at least year’s levels as a demonstration of the commitment of other key stakeholders towards sustainable cocoa industry.

The President of the Ghana Cocoa, Coffee and Sheanut Farmers Association, Alhaji Alhassan Bukari, told the Daily Graphic, shortly after the increment that farmers were happy about the increment, which for them was a pleasant surprise.

According to him, the trend has always been a reduction in their prices, hence a decision to increase the local prices in spite of reducing world market prices was a laudable initiative by government.

“We thank the government for his efforts in the cocoa sector,” Alhaji Bukari said.

He, however, advised cocoa farmers along the Cote d’Ivoire border “not to allow the farmers from the country to bring their cocoa here with their bad prices to come and spoil our quality cocoa.”