Cocoa farmers in the country have been given a huge incentive to produce more, following government’s decision to increase the producer price of cocoa by 62.74%.
This was announced by the Ministry of Finance and the Ghana Cocoa Board (Cocobod) on Thursday.
This means government will now pay cocoa farmers GHS5,520 per ton of cocoa they produce for the 2014/2015 crop season, up from the from GHS3,392.
[contextly_sidebar id=”3ZvS2MhDcslcxmaueb14pcIPP5Qqthpo”]The Minority in Parliament recently called on government to, as a matter of urgency, pay Ghanaian cocoa farmers at least 70 per cent of the free-on-board (FOB) price of cocoa.
They argued that the steep depreciation of the Cedi against the dollar, high cost of living and increase in cocoa prices on the world market were enough justification to ensure that the farmers received their due for their labour.
The farmers would also be paid GHS 350 per 64kg bag for the 2014/2015 crop season
Government has also announced it will pay GHS 5.00 bonus per bag of cocoa to farmers in the 2014/2015 crop season.
COCOBOD has received 1.7 billion dollars from partner banks to purchase cocoa beans for the 2014/2015 cocoa season.
This was after a Cocobod syndicated loan in September was oversubscribed by about 15 percent.
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By: Anim Kwaku Boadu/citifmonline.com/Ghana