Mr Wisdom Kofi Dogbey, Managing Director of Cocoa Marketing Company (Ghana) Limited (CMC), has called for a fairer distribution of value across the global cocoa supply chain to protect long-term production.
He said cocoa farmers, who bore the primary responsibility for producing the crop, continued to receive less than 10 per cent of profits generated across the international cocoa value chain.
Mr Dogbey made the call at the fourth CAA International Cocoa Conference 2026 in Singapore, where industry stakeholders are discussing cocoa supply, prices, sustainability, investment and other developments shaping the global sector.
He urged traders, grinders, manufacturers, investors and other industry players to view farmer incomes as a critical supply-security issue rather than merely a social intervention.
He warned that Ghana and other cocoa-producing countries would struggle to sustainably restore production if farmers remained economically disadvantaged.
“Put the money back into the farm,” he told the conference.
“Our adversary in this cycle is volatility, not each other,” he added.
Farmer Income Key To Production Recovery
Mr Dogbey said discussions about the future of cocoa supply should go beyond international prices, trading strategies and sourcing diversification to consider whether farmers had sufficient economic incentives to maintain, rehabilitate and replant their farms.
He said the rate at which farmers replanted ageing or diseased cocoa trees was largely determined by their expected returns from the new trees.
“The replanting rate is set by what the farmer expects to earn when the new tree bears, not by what the extension service recommends,” he said.
“Farms go unreplanted when the return does not justify replanting. That is not a Ghanaian failing; it is arithmetic.”
He said Ghana’s cocoa sector faced several production challenges, including Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus Disease, ageing trees, excessive rainfall, changing weather patterns, mining encroachment and declining productivity.
He stressed that those challenges could not be addressed sustainably without making cocoa farming economically attractive enough for producers to reinvest.
Ghana Strengthens Farmer Protection
Mr Dogbey said the administration of President John Dramani Mahama had given legal backing to its policy of ensuring that cocoa farmers received at least 70 per cent of the world market price through the newly enacted Ghana Cocoa Board Act, 2026.
The Act, which received presidential assent on August 26, 2026, provides statutory backing for several measures aimed at improving the welfare and long-term sustainability of cocoa farming.
These include a minimum farmer share of the Free on Board (FOB) value, the Cocoa Farmers Pension Scheme, an educational trust for farmers’ children, protection of cocoa farmland and support for increased domestic cocoa processing.
Mr Dogbey described the statutory guarantee of at least 70 per cent of FOB value as a significant step towards strengthening farmer protection.
“That is the transmission question answered in statute rather than in communiqués,” he said.
Call To Make Living Income Differential Work
The CMC Managing Director also called for the Living Income Differential (LID), introduced by Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire to improve cocoa producer incomes, to be allowed to achieve its intended purpose.
“I am not asking for a new instrument. I am asking that the one already agreed be allowed to work,” he said.
He said improving farmer incomes was essential to creating the economic conditions required for sustained investment in cocoa farms.
Industry Must Invest At Origin
Mr Dogbey further urged international cocoa companies to invest in Ghana’s productive capacity rather than focus primarily on sourcing cocoa beans from the country.
“Diversification redistributes exposure. It does not create supply where the supply is at risk,” he said.
He urged international grinders, investors and equipment suppliers to “invest at origin, not only source from it.”
He said sustainable recovery of Ghana’s cocoa sector would require increased investment in farm rehabilitation, improved inputs, accessible financing, new planting and opportunities for irrigated cocoa production.
On sustainability and traceability requirements, Mr Dogbey said the financial burden of complying with international due-diligence standards should be fairly shared across the cocoa value chain.
He said Ghana had invested significantly in farm mapping, geolocation and farmer registration to meet international traceability and due-diligence requirements.
“If compliance is worth having, it is worth paying for,” he said.
Mr Dogbey said the long-term viability of the global cocoa industry ultimately depended on creating an economically sustainable cocoa farmer.
He said ensuring that farmers received adequate returns from cocoa production would be critical to maintaining supply, rehabilitating ageing farms and encouraging a new generation of producers to remain in the sector.
