The just-announced increase in the farm-gate price of cocoa by government is a rip-off of our hardworking cocoa farmers and their families who continue to sustain our economy through their toil.
With the international market price of cocoa surging to a 46-year record high of $3,600, government should have given our cocoa farmers their fair share of the international FOB price.
Sadly, government has chosen to give them a paltry our GH₵1,308 per bag, which constitutes only 52.7% of the FOB Price of the product on the international market.
This is unfair to our cocoa farmers who have been worse off since the NPP took over the reins of government in 2017.
In 2016, my government, in addition to the free fertilizer and free cocoa seedlings programme, gave cocoa farmers 66.06% of the FOB Price of cocoa.
This NPP administration should have built on this foundation. They have rather increased the operational expenses of COCOBOD and reduced the international FOB share for the farmers.
Cocoa farmers certainly deserve better!
