Citizen Watch demands GH₵9,000 as farmgate price for cocoa farmers

Elikem Agbenyegah Business News Aug - 21 - 2019 , 18:36

The Citizen Watch, a think tank, is calling on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo to as a matter of urgency scale up the farmgate price of cocoa beans to GH₵9,000 per tonne from the current GH₵7600.

According to the Citizen Watch, the increase will help save cocoa farmers from the imminent collapse of their industry.

In a press statement signed and issued in Accra by Francis Mensah, the convener of the Citizen Watch, the group argued, “What we expect the government to do is to provide the much need incentive to these famers, since the country largely depends on their efforts in supporting our balance of payment and not to cripple the industry.

“Even as the dollar is on the rise, the government is still paying such a paltry amount of money. We are calling on the government to act on this issue immediately before the worse happens”, the statement said.

Meanwhile, the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has denied media reports that it plans to increase the producer price paid to cocoa farmers in the 2019/20 cocoa season to GH¢8,000 per tonne.

It said beyond the reports being untrue, they were premature as the Producer Price Review Committee (PPRC), which met every year to fix the farm gate price, was yet to meet and take a decision.

The Head of Public Affairs of COCOBOD, Mr Fiifi Boafo, who said this in an interview on August 8, thus advised cocoa farmers, industry stakeholders and the general public to disregard the reports.

“The information out there is not true; no decision has been made and we are yet to call for PPRC meeting and that is about a month away.

“So nobody has the right, mandate and information to determine what the price will be, and we want the public to disregard any information to the contrary,” he told the Daily Graphic in Accra.