Reuters, November 9, Accra According to President Nana Akufo-Addo, Ghana, the second-largest producer of cocoa in the world, has increased the set farmgate price paid to cocoa farmers for the second time this 2024–2025 season in an effort to increase farmers' incomes. At a farmers' award ceremony late Friday, Akufo-Addo, whose two-term tenure ends on January 7, 2025, stated that cocoa growers would now earn 49,600 Ghanaian cedi ($3,062) per metric ton, instead of the 48,000 Ghanaian cedi that was announced when the season began on September 1.
According to a spokeswoman for the Cocoa Marketing Board (Cocobod), the increase was implemented immediately. In October, producers hoarded beans due to reports of a probable price increase, which might have squeezed supplies worldwide. More than a third of Ghana's cocoa production for 2023–2024 was lost as a result of the government's efforts to boost farmers' earnings and discourage smuggling, according to Cocobod officials. This exacerbated sectoral issues that caused Ghana's output to drop to a level not seen in over two decades, contributing to record highs in cocoa prices worldwide.
Akufo-Addo added that he has instructed Cocobod to offer university education scholarships to the children of cocoa producers. The price increase was much less than the combined effects of inflation and currency depreciation, which muted the potential impact, according to Bright Simons, a vice president at the think tank IMANI Africa, based in Accra. Simons said the policies' motivation "appears to be strictly about votes in the impending elections."
On December 7, voters in Ghana, one of Africa's most stable democracies, will choose a successor to Akufo-Addo, who took office in 2017. The leading candidates are former president John Mahama of the major opposition National Democratic Congress party and vice president Muhamudu Bawumia of the ruling New Patriotic Party. Ghana's worst economic crisis in a generation is working against the ruling party, according to polls from Accra-based research firm Global InfoAnalytics, which predicts Mahama will win. Former central banker and economist Bawumia is regarded as the spokesperson for the government's economic policies.
Ghana produces more cocoa than its neighbor, Ivory Coast. $1 is equal to 16.2000 Ghanaian cedi.
