Why Ghana wants to raise cocoa farmers’ prices by 5.2%
Ghanaian officials have signaled their intentions to raise cocoa farmgate prices by 5.2% for the 2019/20 season.
According Reuters sources at Ghana’s agency coordinating the sector, Cocobod and its marketing arm Cocoa Marketing Company (CMC) this will be the first increase in four years.
The farmgate price will rise to $1,523.81 (8,000 Ghanaian cedis) per tonne in the next season starting in October this year.
That is an increase from $1,410.38 (7,600 cedis) per tonne the previous season.
A meeting of Ghana’s Producer Price Review Committee is now set to take place in September to finalize the latest increment proposal.
Farmers will then be informed about it in early October before the start of the cocoa season.
Ghana is the world’s second-biggest cocoa producer after Ivory Coast.
The country produced 794,000 tonnes of cocoa this season, down 11.7% from the last season.
These increases appear to be an attempt to improve the livelihood of Cocoa farmers after Ghana and Ivory made gains in seeking better pricing for the commodity.
Africa Feeds sources within the Ghanaian government also revealed that the intention is also to attract young people into the sector and make a case that it’s possible to be wealthy in growing the commodity.
Source: Africafeeds.com
