The latest cocoa producer-price adjustment announced by the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) may put a few more cedis into farmers’ pockets, but not more purchasing power when adjusted for inflation.
COCOBOD has increased the producer price for the 2026/27 cocoa season from GH¢41,392 to GH¢42,400 per tonne, translating into GH¢2,650 per 64kg bag, up from GH¢2,587 previously. This is an increase of GH¢63 per bag, or about 2.4%. The new price took effect on September 25, 2026.
However, an analysis of the price in real terms by policy and data analyst Alfred Appiah tells a different story. According to his analysis, when the effect of inflation is removed, the real value of the cocoa producer price falls from about GH¢830 in 2025 to GH¢820 in 2026, representing a 1.3% decline in purchasing power.
What this Means to the Farmer
To put it simply, the farmer is receiving GH¢63 more for every 64kg bag, but that additional money does not buy as much as the GH¢63 increase might suggest.
For instance, imagine a farmer who sold one bag for GH¢2,587 last season and can now sell it for GH¢2,650. On paper, the farmer is GH¢63 better off. However, if the prices of food, transport, clothing, school expenses, labour, and other household necessities have increased faster than the cocoa price, the farmer’s GH¢2,650 has less purchasing power.
This is precisely what the real-price calculation captures. While the nominal price, as announced by COCOBOD, captures how much hard currency the farmer receives for selling cocoa, the real price answers “What can those cedis actually buy after accounting for inflation?”
What the Analysis Reveals
Per Alfred Appiah’s analysis, the latest adjustment did not fully preserve the purchasing power of 2025. The analysis shows that the gap becomes more significant when the latest price is compared with 2024.
The real cocoa producer price peaked at about GH¢1,136 in 2024, measured in 2019 cedis. It fell to about GH¢830 in 2025 and now to approximately GH¢820 in 2026.
This means the real value of the producer price in 2026 is roughly 28% below its 2024 peak, despite the much higher number of cedis farmers receive today.
The longer-term pattern makes the point even more clearly. Between 2016 and 2022, the nominal producer price rose by about 68%, while its real value actually fell by 19%, according to Appiah’s analysis.
Huge Headline Figures Do Not Mean Farmers are Necessarily Better Off
A producer-price increase is meaningful only if it keeps pace with the rising cost of maintaining the farm and running the household. A farmer may receive more money per bag while simultaneously finding that fertiliser, labour, food, transport and other necessities consume a larger share of that income.
COCOBOD says the new GH¢42,400 per tonne represents 71.18% of realised gross FOB value, above the 70% minimum guaranteed to farmers under the Ghana Cocoa Board Act, 2026 (Act 1182). The government has also highlighted free fertiliser, hybrid seedlings and disease and pest-control programmes as measures intended to reduce farmers’ production costs and improve incomes.
The GH¢63 increase is therefore a nominal gain, but the 1.3% fall in real value means the purchasing power attached to each bag has slipped slightly.
