Low Cocoa Market Price: Producers, Consumers Struggle To Survive

Accra, February 7, 2018//-The fall of Cocoa prices on the world market, has become a major concern to the Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Joseph Boahen Aidoo, the government, consumers and products of cocoa products.

According to him, the current decrease in the world cocoa price from $3,100 to $1,800 per tonne within ten months burdens both producers and consumers.

“As producers struggle to survive the cutting effect of low incomes from the commodity, both producers and consumers stand to suffer the long-term damage, if we fail to adopt measures today to remedy the situation,” Mr Aidoo said.

The CEO said this in a speech read on his behalf by Dr. Yaw Adu-Ampomah, Deputy Chief Executive of Ghana Cocoa Board at the opening of a three-day Regional Partners Meeting on the Sustainable Smallholder Agri-Business (SSAB)  in Accra.

The event dabbed ‘Strong smallholder entrepreneurs for a strong Cocoa sector, Institutionalising successful approaches to increase and diversify cocoa smallholders’ incomes’, was commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany and implemented by GIZ.

He continued the existing problems of the cocoa swollen shoot virus disease at its endemic levels, over-aged cocoa farms, pests and other diseases, are being compounded by the current low cocoa price issue.

However, with Government’s support, COCOBOD has put in place measures to assist cocoa farmers to increase their farm products as  strategic response to reduce the impact of the low cocoa prices on producer income.

Mr. Aidoo said, their main focus is to treat the farms affected by deadly swollen shoot diseased and as well as offer extension services based on good agricultural practices, raise productivity and restore confidence in farmers.

The COCOBOD CEO however said, the SSAB project which would be ending by end of this year, has been very useful to cocoa producers where adoption rate has been over 70%, and its goal is to help 404,600 male and female smallholders, mainly in cocoa growing areas of Ghana, Nigeria, Togo, the Ivory Coast and Cameroon, to sustainably improve their incomes and food supplies from diversified production.

“We have initiated the process to incorporate the Farmer Business School/Cooperative Business School modules in the curricula of the Bunso Cocoa College to ensure the Sustainability of the programme,” he noted.

According to him, the SSAB programme coincides with the difficult times in the cocoa industry’s modern history when prices consistently fell to threaten the sustainability of supply and survival of producers.

Meanwhile, Mr. Aidoo indicated that, Ghana’s cocoa industry employs a significant number of the population, by meeting the livelihood needs of over 800,000 families and over thousands of workers in the value chain.

“As we produce, we must be innovative in our handling of the challenges that confront the industry to survive the rapidly changing market environment. One of the several available strategist is to explore synergies with our partners as the way forward to reaching our goals,” he stressed.

Mrs. Verena Wiesner, the Head of Cooperation of the German Embassy in Ghana, who opened the event together with the Deputy Chief Executive Director of Ghana Cocoa Board, Dr. Yaw Adu Ampomah and witnessed by over 100 partners and stakeholders from across the cocoa sector, stated that, it is priority of the German Government to support the cocoa sector across Africa.

Meanwhile, in their statement, in 2010, the precursory project “Sustainable Cocoa Business” developed the Farmer Business School (FBS) approach for cocoa production systems with its partners with the aim to support male and female smallholder farmers to become better farm Managers.

“The FBS training covers farm management and investment strategies for the use of Good Agricultural Practice (GPA). More than 450,000 cocoa producers (29 % of them female) have been trained by our local partners. In addition to FBS training, more than 167,000 cocoa farmers (30% women) have been trained in Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) for cocoa and food products.

The SSAB programme also supports over 50 public, private and civil society partners in the five partner countries. In Ghana, the activities build on a very good collaboration with the Cocoa

Health and Extension Division (CHED) of COCOBOD.

The joint effort to build capacities of extension agents and their supervisors in the FBS approach has contributed immensely to extension delivery and to the incubation of farmer groups and cooperatives in Ghana.

The programme is being partnered by private firms such as, AgroEcom, Touton, Dizengoff, Fidelity Bank, Mondelez, Solidaridad and Rainforest Alliance.

By Sammy Adjei, African Eye Report

 

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