COCOA FARMERS HAIL DEAL (1B, OCT 16)

Story: Kofi Yeboah

THE Ghana Cocoa, Coffee and Sheanut Farmers Association (GCCSFA) has described the recent cocoa price increase and other incentive packages announced by the government for cocoa farmers as adequate and commendable.
This is contrary to claims in some quarters that the new producer price of cocoa announced by the government last Wednesday is inadequate.
“Cocoa farmers are happy about the new producer price. It is good for us,” the acting President of the association, Alhaji Alhassan Bukari, told the Daily Graphic in a telephone interview yesterday.
Last Wednesday, the government announced a new producer price of GH¢138 per 64-kilogramme bag of cocoa, representing a 35.29 per cent increase over the previous price.
This means Ghanaian cocoa farmers will earn GH¢2,208 per tonne of cocoa, representing 71.06 per cent of the world selling price.
The government further announced the establishment of a social security fund for cocoa farmers with seed money of GH¢15 million.
However, some cocoa farmers are not enthused by the package because, according to them, the new producer price is inadequate, compared to what pertains in neighbouring Cote d’Ivoire.
Responding to those concerns, Alhaji Bukari said the critics were myopic because if they could look far enough and consider the incentive package, they would realise that the government had given cocoa farmers a good deal.
He said the new bonus, compulsory scholarship for children of cocoa farmers and the pension scheme for cocoa farmers announced by the government were packages that would help boost cocoa production in the country.
Alhaji Bukari urged the government to involve cocoa farmers in the mass cocoa spraying exercise to make it more successful.
He admitted that some cocoa farmers had been smuggling the produce outside the country and expressed the association’s commitment to help address the problem.
Ghana is the second largest producer of cocoa in the world after Cote d’Ivoire and the country is seeking to increase its production from the current level of about 650,000 metric tonnes per annum to one million metric tonnes.
In a related development, cocoa farmers in the Western Region have welcomed the new producer price and the novelty insurance package, reports Moses Dotsey Aklorbortu from Takoradi.
However, they said the 35 per cent price increase was below their expectation.
The farmers warned that given the current price difference between what pertained in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, coupled with the rate of exchange of the CFA against the cedi, the smuggling of cocoa along the Ghana-Cote d’Ivoire border might increase.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic, a section of the farmers in the region said the government had demonstrated its readiness to help them to secure a good price for their produce but they wished that the price had been pushed to GH¢150 instead of GH¢138.
Cocoa farmers in Akontombra and other Sefwi areas, Mampon-Abotariye, Adum-Bansu, Nzema and Amenfi areas commended the government but wished the price had been higher than the GH¢138 offered them.