Ghana late Friday announced a 58.2 percent raise in the producer price of cocoa for farmers with immediate effect.
In a press release,Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), the industry regulator, said the new price for the 2023–2024 crop year increases to 33,120 Ghana cedis (2,498 U.S. dollars) per ton, or 2,070 cedis per 64 kg bag, from 20,926 cedis per ton, or 1,308 cedis per 64 kg bag, announced last September.
“The increase in the producer price has become necessary to enhance the welfare of farmers in response to the rising prices of cocoa on the international market,” COCOBOD said.
Ghana is the world’s second-largest cocoa producer after neighboring Cote d’Ivoire, with an estimated 800,000 farm families spread across the producing regions of the country.
But the Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus Disease (CSSVD) and Cocoa Black Pod Disease have been threatening production in Ghana and Cote d’Ívoire in recent years, leading to shortfalls on the international market.
CSSVD is a plant pathogenic virus of the family Caulimoviridae that primarily infects cacao trees. It decreases cacao yield within the first year of infection, and usually kills the tree within a few years.
COCOBOD Chief Executive Officer, Joseph Boahen Aidoo, disclosed in February that CSSVD had wiped out over 500,000 hectares of cocoa farms in Ghana. In addition to CSSVD, Aidoo said during a panel discussion of the World Cocoa Foundation in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, that illegal mining and climate change also impacted the cocoa industry negatively, worsening the decline in cocoa production and threatening the livelihoods of farmers.