Farmers in Gyampokrom, in the Sefwi Juaboso District of the Western North Region, have threatened to “smuggle” their cocoa goods to Ivory Coast if the government doesn’t raise the price of producing cocoa for the 2022–2023 growing season.
They want the current 66-dollar price of a bag of cocoa to be raised to $1,200.
Farmers contend that the current economic environment has an impact on them as well. However, costs for labor, agricultural supplies, and other services have risen.
They begged the government to increase the price so they wouldn’t have to sell their cocoa to the Ivory Coast.
“We harvest large quantities of cocoa in this area but do not any benefits from our work. We engage in several farming activities and cultivate varieties of crops; yet, we are unable to afford our children’s education.
“We have heard that the cocoa business is now lucrative in Côte d’Ivoire so if the government does not increases the prices for us, we would export the products because fortunately for us, we are close to the Ivory Coast border,” they hinted.
Ayisi Kumah Thomas Kwesi, president of the Coalition for Cocoa Sector Reforms, has urged the government to critically examine the position of farmers, who continue to live in abject poverty.
“Today, due to the deteriorating living conditions of cocoa farmers, farmers under compelling circumstances sell out their cocoa farms to galamsey operators. The illegal miners are buying and destroying cultivated lands, forests and water bodies.
“It is predictable that should this trend continue, galamsey activities may throw farmers away from their homes. We wish to emphasise for the attention of Cocobod and, for that matter, government that cocoa farmers are growing poorer and poorer; they are now vulnerable than before.
“They deserve no less than 100% increase in farm gate prices, beginning the 2022/23 season,” he stated.
