Good prices remain best solution to cocoa smuggling – COCOBOD CEO

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Joseph Boahen Aidoo has stated that his outfit was committed to giving cocoa farmers the best prices possible as a solution to cocoa smuggling. 

Appearing before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament on Tuesday to respond to some infractions contained in the Auditor-General’s Report for the year ending December 2022, Mr Aidoo said even though the board’s collaboration with national security agencies to fight the menace was yielding positive and far-reaching results, favourable prices were the best move to help curtail the incidence in the long term.

He said good cocoa prices would help serve as a disincentive for farmers who engaged in smuggling Ghana’s cocoa to neighbouring countries.

“We have made a lot of arrests. We have arrested people smuggling cocoa in jerrycans among others. But that will not solve the problem. The solution is bringing a new price,” he stressed.

In 2023, Ghana reportedly lost about 150,000 metric tonnes of cocoa beans, which represented about $600 million in revenue in the last crop season, as a result of smuggling to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Togo.

In September of the same year, the government increased the price at which it buys a bag of cocoa from GH¢800 per 64 kilogrammes (kg) to GH¢1,308.

The 63.5 per cent increment translated to GH¢20,943 per tonne of raw cocoa beans, up from GH¢12,800 per tonne.