Nana Opoku Gyamfi
The 2016 National Best Cocoa Farmer, Nana Opoku Gyamfi, has appealed to farmers not to accept what he termed ‘cheap propaganda’ being peddled by the Minority National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Parliament on the recent cocoa producer price announced by government.
According to him, the decision of government to maintain a tonne of cocoa at a price of GHc7, 600 for the 2017/18 crop year showed that it cares about cocoa farmers in Ghana.
The Chief Farmer disclosed this when several award-winning cocoa farmers from the Asunafo District paid a courtesy call on the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of COCOBOD, Joseph Boahen Aidoo, at Cocoa House, Accra.
The current price per tonne is about $500 more than the price being offered by some of the neighbouring cocoa producing countries, he explained.
It would be recalled that the Minority recently made a call in Parliament for an increment in cocoa price for cocoa farmers in spite of the drastic fall in the producer price of cocoa on the world market, which has forced Ghana’s neighbouring countries to reduce the prices they pay to their farmers.
The decision by government to maintain the price is a hard one, and some industry watchers were even hoping to see a little dip in the price domestically.
But Minister for Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, insisted that the interest and wellbeing of Ghanaian cocoa farmers was paramount to the Akufo-Addo administration, which has vowed to maintain the price and make COCOBOD pay the price.”
Surprisingly, the Minority warned the government to increase the price domestically ostensibly to protect farmers’ interest.
But that has backfired, as cocoa farmers across the country, represented by the Cocoa and Coffee Association of Ghana, have expressed their satisfaction with government’s decision to maintain cocoa price in the country despite a sharp drop in the price of cocoa beans on the international market.
President of the Association, Alhaji Alhassan Bukari, said “we are not politicians but we disagree with the Minority’s call for an increase in cocoa price now, judging by the situation on the world market.”
Addressing the farmers, Chief Executive of COCOBOD, Joseph Aidoo, expressed gratitude to them for the visit and praised the farmers in the Brong Ahafo Region for their efforts at sustaining cocoa production in the country.
By Melvin Tarlue