Cocoa Prices Up (Page 3)

Saturday, September 6, 2008.

THE producer price of cocoa has been increased from GH1,200 per tonne to GH¢1,632 per tonne.
By that, the price of a 64 kilogramme bag of cocoa has been increased from GH¢75 to GH¢102.
The new price, a 70.46 per cent increase, takes effect from the beginning of the 2008/2009 crop season.
In addition, many other incentive packages were announced to benefit the country’s cocoa farmers and to motivate them to produce more.
Announcing these at a press conference on in Accra yesterday on behalf of the President, the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, said the gesture was in pursuit of the government’s policy of paying a minimum of 70 per cent to the cocoa farmer and also its determination to ensure that a remunerative producer price was maintained.
Present a the event were the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Mr Isaac Osei, and other officials of the Board and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning.
Mr Baah-Wiredu said in addition to the increase in producer price, an estimated GH¢80,905,705.00, which translates into GH¢124.47 per tonne, would be spent on pests and disease control exercises.
Furthermore, the minister stated, GH¢15,182,859.00 or GH¢23.35 per tonne would be spent to control the swollen shoot virus in addition to GH¢65,500,000.00 that had been earmarked for fertiliser application.
Mr Baah-Wiredu observed that disease control and application of fertilisers were essential components in the government’s drive to encourage farmers to shift from traditional to hi-tech production.
“These projects, therefore, represent additional incentives to motivate cocoa farmers in Ghana to put in extra effort to produce more cocoa,” he pointed out.
Mr Baah-Wiredu said the government had given directives for the establishment of what he termed Stabilisation Fund, to provide a mechanism to guarantee stable income for cocoa farmers in the event of drastic fall in the world market price of cocoa.
He explained that the action was consistent with the “Accra Agenda” towards a sustainable cocoa economy, which was developed at the International Cocoa Organisation Roundtable Meeting on sustainable cocoa production in October, 2007.
“In this respect, an amount of GH¢29.30 per tonne or an estimated GH¢19,045,000.00 from the net freight of board (FOB) sharing has been set aside for the creation of the stabilisation fund beginning from the 2008/2009 crop season.
He touched on cocoa scholarship where he stated that GH¢2,500,000.00 had been allocated to the Cocoa Farmers Wards Scholarship Trust Fund, among other incentives. He pointed out that the government was committed to ensuring that all other stakeholders in the cocoa industry were paid economic rates and fees to enable them to remain in profitable business.