The Minister of Finance, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, on August 4, 2025, announced that the government has increased the producer price of cocoa from US$3,100 per tonne to US$5,040 per tonne.
The new price takes effect from Thursday, 7th August 2025.
At a press briefing in Parliament on Tuesday, August 5, 2025, Ranking Member on the Food, Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs Committee, Isaac Yaw Opoku, indicated that Ghanaian farmers have been dealt a raw deal, as he claimed their counterparts in Ivory Coast are receiving higher prices.
The Minority Caucus described the new price announced by the government as “ridiculous, laughable, comical, absurd, shameful, unfair, and a stab in the back of cocoa farmers.”
The Offinso South MP maintained that cocoa farmers deserve far better than the current price announced.
“They cannot be taken for granted all the time. The deception must stop,” the MP said.
According to the Caucus, the new cocoa producer price constitutes a paltry 4.2% increase over the price of GHC3,100 per bag.
“You agree with me that our hard working cocoa farmer deceive better than this ‘SAKAWA’ price of GHC3228.75.”
The Minority member urged the government to review the cocoa producer price immediately to motivate cocoa farmers and prevent the temptation of farmers giving their cocoa farms out to galamsey operators.
The Minority further argued that the new cocoa producer price which is less than what is offered in Ivory Coast would compel farmers to smuggle cocoa beans to nearby countries to sell in order to acquire higher prices.
“Today the Ivorian farmer at the current exchange rate is receiving the equivalent of GHC3,635 per bag of 64 kilos, a staggering GHC407 more than what COCOBOD is paying, This stark difference presents an irresistible incentive for smugglers to divert Ghanaian cocoa across the border particularly leading to a mass exodus of our priced main crop bean from the border region,” he stated.
President John Dramani Mahama earlier announced that, beginning with the next cocoa season, Ghanaian cocoa farmers will receive no less than 70 per cent of the prevailing world market price for their produce.
Addressing a grand durbar of chiefs and residents in Juaboso on Tuesday, July 17, 2025, the President declared: “Let me be clear: we will honour our promise to pay our hardworking farmers 70 per cent of the world market price of cocoa. The sweat of our cocoa farmers deserves dignity and a fair reward.”
President Mahama described cocoa as “the lifeblood of our rural economy” and emphasised that sustaining farmers’ livelihoods is central to Ghana’s growth agenda.
However, the Minority questioned the promise made by the President, demanding that government fulfill its promise to cocoa farmers.
Source: 3news
