People carry bags of cocoa at a cocoa exporter’s in Abidjan, on July 3, 2019. – In June key producers Ivory Coast and Ghana threatened to stop selling their production to buyers unwilling to meet a minimum price of $2,600 per tonne.
The two African nations — which together account for 60 percent of the world’s cocoa production — want to end a situation where cocoa producers make only $6 billion in a global chocolate market worth around $100 billion. (Photo by Sia KAMBOU / AFP) (Photo credit should read SIA KAMBOU/AFP via Getty Images)
Opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) Members of Parliament are calling for cocoa farmers to be paid at least GH₵7,000 per bag of cocoa or more.
It could be recalled that during the 2024 campaigning season, several prominent figures in the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) insisted that cocoa farmers should receive at least 60% of the international price for cocoa.
The Minister for Agriculture recently indicated that the government could even consider raising this to 70%.
Dr Isaac Yaw Opoku, NPP MP for Offinso South, stated that the government must honour its promise.
“During the 2024 election, the expectations of farmers were heightened by the NDC’s continued promise of a producer price of no less than 70% of the world market price. Farmers’ anxiety has already been heightened over the past 44 days under the NDC administration, and we must ensure this expectation is not allowed to diminish,” he said.
He demanded that the government immediately sets a new producer price of not less than GH₵7,400 per bag for cocoa farmers.
“We insist that a new price not be set below GH₵7,000 per bag of cocoa,” he stated during a press conference in Parliament on Wednesday, February 19.
Listen to the MP:
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