Some 300,000 Cocoa Farmers Threaten to Smuggle Entire Harvest to Ivory Coast Over New Farmgate Price
A coalition of Ghanaian cocoa farmers, according to Reuters, has threatened to prevent officers of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) from accessing their farms in protest against the newly announced producer price for the 2025/2026 crop season.
The farmers, numbering over 300,000, argue that the fixed price of GH¢51,660 ($4,783) per tonne — equivalent to GH¢3,228 per 64kg bag — is inadequate and risks fueling smuggling to neighbouring Ivory Coast and Togo, where farmgate prices are perceived to be higher. The new rate, announced on August 4, represents a 4 percent increase from the previous season.
“The price falls short of the government’s pledge to pay 70 percent of the free-on-board (FOB) price, which should have yielded around GH¢3,800 per bag,” said Theophilus Tamakloe, Vice President of the Ghana Cooperative Cocoa Farmers and Marketing Association.
Kwame Alex, who was recently adjudged Best Cocoa Farmer at the National Farmers Awards, noted a price differential of about GH¢700 between Ghana’s producer price and that of Ivory Coast. “That creates incentives for smuggling,” he said.
“If I’m close to the Côte d’Ivoire border, probably all my cocoa beans will go to Côte d’Ivoire because the government has not been fair to us,” Mr Tamakloe added.
The farmers’ threat to bar COCOBOD officers from their farms marks an escalation that could disrupt extension services such as crop monitoring and farmer education, key functions of the regulator’s operations in cocoa-growing regions.
Smuggling remains a major challenge in Ghana’s cocoa sector, with COCOBOD estimating that about 160,000 tonnes of cocoa were lost to cross-border trade in the 2023/24 season.
Mr Alex added that the announced price was particularly inadequate in the face of rising input costs, noting that a single bottle of insecticide now sells for about GH¢150 while equipment rental fees have climbed to GH¢100 per day.
