New farm-gate price is a rip-off to hardworking cocoa farmers – John Mahama

Former president, John Dramani Mahama, has expressed his disappointment at government’s recently announced hike in the farm-gate cocoa price for cocoa farmers in the upcoming 2023/2024 crop season.

He described the increment as deceptive and a rip-off of hardworking cocoa farmers and their families who continue to play a critical role in Ghana’s economy through the commodity.

In a Facebook post sighted by GhanaWeb Business, John Mahama argued that given the international market price of cocoa reaching a 46-year record high of $3,600, it was imperative for government to have provided cocoa farmers with a more equitable share of the international Free On Board (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,” he wrote.

“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,” he added.

The former president maintained that instead of the governing NPP to build on existing foundations in the cocoa sector, it has rather increased the operational expenses of the Ghana COCOBOD while reducing international FOB price share meant for cocoa farmers.

Meanwhile, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Saturday September 9 announced an increase in the farm-gate price for cocoa beans from GH¢800 to GH¢1,308 for the 2023/2024 crop season.

The increase represents a 63 percent hike in almost 20 years.

Read John Mahama's post below:



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