Ghana’s cocoa sector is facing renewed turbulence as a coalition representing some 300,000 farmers has threatened to divert their entire harvest to neighbouring Ivory Coast in protest against the government’s newly announced farmgate price for the 2025/26 season.
The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) on August 4 set the producer price at GH¢51,660 ($4,783) per tonne, or GH¢3,228 per 64kg bag, reflecting a 4% increase from last year. But farmers argue the increment is negligible compared to both production costs and regional market dynamics.
“The price falls short of the government’s pledge to pay 70 percent of the free-on-board (FOB) price, which should have yielded around GH¢3,800 per bag,”Theophilus Tamakloe, Vice President of the Ghana Cooperative Cocoa Farmers and Marketing Association warned in an interview that the gap could drive mass smuggling across porous borders.
Kwame Alex, the 2024 National Best Cocoa Farmer, underscored the scale of the problem. “There’s about a GH¢700 difference between Ghana’s price and that of Côte d’Ivoire. That creates incentives for smuggling,” he noted.
Smuggling has long been a thorn in Ghana’s cocoa trade. COCOBOD estimates that more than 160,000 tonnes were siphoned off to Ivory Coast and Togo during the 2023/24 season. These have become losses that weakened both revenues and local supply.
The latest farmers’ threat to bar COCOBOD officers from their farms could also disrupt extension services, including crop monitoring, disease control, and farmer education, which are critical elements of Ghana’s cocoa productivity drive.
Rising input costs add to the discontent. “A single bottle of insecticide now sells for about GH¢150, while equipment rental is GH¢100 per day. The announced price doesn’t cover our costs,” Alex lamented.
Tamakloe was more direct. “If I’m close to the Côte d’Ivoire border, probably all my cocoa beans will go to Côte d’Ivoire because the government has not been fair to us.”
The dispute comes at a delicate time for Ghana’s cocoa industry, already under pressure from climate shocks, ageing farms, and dwindling yields. Analysts warn that without urgent dialogue and pricing adjustments, the world’s second-largest cocoa producer risks further eroding farmer confidence and its share of the global market.
