Cocoa Producer Price Increased

By Stephen Kwabena Effah
Saturday, 14 October 2006 (Page 3)

THE government has increased the producer price of cocoa from ¢9 million to ¢9.150 million per tonne.

Consequently, a 64 kilogramme of cocoa now costs ¢571,875 as against the ¢562,500 in the 2005/2006 cocoa season.

A total of ¢178.2 billion is also to be paid as bonus to cocoa farmers for the just ended main crop season.

The Finance and Economic Planning Minister, Kwadwo Baah Wiredu, announced this yesterday at a press conference in Accra to officially open the 2006/2007 main crop season.

He said the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has mobilised 810 million dollars for purchasing operations this year, adding, "We therefore have adequate funding to cover all cocoa purchases estimated to be ¢5.49 trillion".

He said with the exception of the 2004/2005 cocoa season,the government has since 2001 paid a total of ¢608.9 billion as bonuses to cocoa farmers.

"Following the increase in the producer price and the payment of bonus for the 2005/2006 main crop season purchases, an additional amount of ¢268.2 billion will be available to our cocoa farmers."

Mr.Baah Wiredu said the government was also committed to ensuring that all stakeholders in the cocoa industry were paid economic rates and fees to ensure the profitability of their businesses.

As a result, he said, increases in buyers’ margin for licensed buying companies, hauliers’ rates for evacuation among others and other charges, had been approved by the government to ensure that the cocoa industry, which occupies a centre stage in the country’s economy, sustains the gains made in the past six years.

The government attaches great importance to the cocoa sector and has consequently committed itself to ensuring that the necessary assistance is given to the cocoa sector, he said.

The government, he said, has for the past six years implemented various policy initiatives to increase producer prices and payment of bonuses, added value to cocoa products and modernised practices on cocoa farms.

Mr.Baah-Wiredu said cocoa output in the country has doubled since the 2000/2001 crop season, and has consequntly consolidated the country’s position as the world’s second largest producer of cocoa.

He said that in spite of the gains, the just-ended season encountered major challenges such as inadequate jute sacks, purple beans, and congestion at the take-over centres as well as delayed payments for cocoa purchased from farmers.

Government, he said, has also embarked on the tarring of a number of selected roads in the remote cocoa growing areas to facilitate the carting of the bagged cocoa beans to the depots .

The Chief Executive of COCOBOD,Isaac Osei said Ghana produced 740,457 tonnes of cocoa in the just-ended season, adding that it had forecasted 600,000 tonnes of cocoa for this season.

He said the COCOBOD has targeted producing a million tonne of cocoa in the near future noting that “currently, we are having increases in regions like the Brong Ahafo and Ashanti”.

Mr.Osei said the it has provided the Ghana Armed Forces 12 vehicles to patrol on the Ghana-Cote d’Iviore border to check smuggling of cocoa which he said is an economic phenomenon.