'Over 50,000 tonnes of cocoa smuggled to Ivory Coast'

A former Health Minister, Dr. Kweku Afriyie has raised an alarm over the massive smuggling of cocoa at the Ghana -Ivory Coast border.

Dr. Afriyie, who served under the John Kufuor administration, said Ivorian merchants have trooped to Bia, Sefwi and Aowin districts in the Western region of the West African country to smuggle cocoa beans.

He said Ghanaian farmers are selling their beans to the Ivorian merchants because of the low cocoa price being offered them by the Ghana government.

Speaking to Starr News, Dr. Afriyie said government must intervene immediately to stop the smuggling of cocoa.

“Cross the border to La Cote d’Ivoire, people are buying the cocoa in the region of Gh¢350, not too dried... and they buy it for only Gh¢350. [But] government is giving us only Gh¢212, so the minor crop in our area has been virtually wiped out. People have smuggled every bag to La Cote d'Ivoire,” Dr Afriyie said.

"The latest bulletins from the ICCO stated that but for the fact that cocoa, our minor crop [for which] some 50,000 metric tonnes have been smuggled to Cote d’Ivoire, perhaps this season we would have gotten the second highest [revenue] after 2011/2012."

He, however, cautioned the government and the Cocoa Board not to take the cocoa farmers for granted.