Former President John Deamani Mahama beleives the new cocoa pricing announced by President Akufo-Addo is a smoke and mirrors of deception.
The presidential candidate of the NDC says with the international market price surging to a 46-year record high of $3,600, farmers should have been given a fair share of the international FOB price.
President Nana Akufo-Addo on Saturday, announced GH¢1,308 the new producer price per bag of cocoa at an event in Tepa, in the Ashanti Region.
President Akufo-Addo stated that, until recently, international prices of cocoa had remained very low, and made worse by COVID-19.
“Cocoa prices have increased from GH¢7,600 per tonne in 2016, to GH¢12,800 per tonne in 2022, a significant increase of sixty-eight per cent (68%). This has had an adverse impact on COCOBOD’s financial performance,” he said.
According to President Akufo-Addo, government has “increased cocoa prices from GH¢12,800 per ton to GH¢20,943 per ton, or GH¢1,308 per bag.
“That price is seventy-point-five percent (70.5%) of the Gross FoB price, and is equivalent to $1,821 per ton.”
This, the President indicated,” is the highest price to be paid to cocoa farmers across West Africa in some 50 years.
But reacting to the new pricing, Mr. Mahama described it as platry.
“Sadly, the government has chosen to give them a paltry GH₵1,308 per bag, constituting only 52.7% of the FOB Price of the product on the international market.
This is unfair to our cocoa farmers, who have been worse off since the NPP took over the reins of government in 2017.”
Read his full statement below
NPP’s Cocoa Pricing Smoke and Mirrors (Deception)
The government’s just-announced increase in the farm-gate price of cocoa is a rip-off of our hardworking cocoa farmers and their families who continue to sustain our economy through their toil.
With the international market price surging to a 46-year record high of $3,600, the government should have given our cocoa farmers their fair share of the international FOB price.
Sadly, the government has chosen to give them a paltry GH₵1,308 per bag, constituting only 52.7% of the FOB Price of the product on the international market.
This is unfair to our cocoa farmers, who have been worse off since the NPP took over the reins of government in 2017.
In 2016, my government, in addition to the free fertiliser and free cocoa seedlings programme, gave cocoa farmers 66.06% of the FOB Price of cocoa.
This NPP administration should have built on this foundation. They have rather increased the operational expenses of COCOBOD and reduced the international FOB share for the farmers.
Cocoa farmers certainly deserve better!
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
