Cocobod has begun talks with some banks outside the country to help facilitate about US$1.3 billion needed to purchase cocoa beans in the upcoming 2019/2020 crop season.
Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD, Joseph Boahen Aidoo earlier told the media, “Initially we are expecting $1.3 billion. We tread cautiously even though our production has gone above 900,000 metric tonnes, we [still] tread cautiously because of the fall in the price of cocoa.
This is because when the price of cocoa is falling you need larger volumes of cocoa to collateralize.”
Last year, Cocobod raised a similar amount which was used in purchasing some 900,000 metric tonnes of cocoa beans for the crop season.
Cocoa floor price
Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire, which account for 65% of global cocoa production, last month succeeded in getting an agreement with global processors and marketers for the floor price of cocoa beans to be pegged at $2,600 per tonne, after an intensive two-day stakeholder engagement in Accra.
Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire are co-operating to tackle common challenges in the production and marketing of cocoa, and to create a conducive platform for effective engagement with traders, processors, manufacturers, and retailers on all relevant issues of mutual interest, including farmers’ income.
There are fears that the sustenance of the new cocoa floor price could be tampered by low consumption rate of cocoa especially in Africa which accounts to just 4 percent of global consumption rates.
