2023-09-10 22:26:00
Cocoa prices, which had been rising for months, suggested an increase in the price paid to the planter for the new campaign. And in fact, the new price announced by Ghana looks much more profitable: it has been set at 20,900 cedis per tonne, compared to 12,800 for the last harvest, or the equivalent of approximately 1,100 CFA francs per kilo. An increase of 63% in local currency.
With this announcement, the Ghanaian authorities are sending a strong signal to planters one year before the presidential election. But might it be otherwise? “This very attractive price is the only way for the government to try to fight once morest the establishment of illegal mines and the flight of cocoa to neighboring countries.», Explains an expert in the sector.
Plantations coveted by gold miners
Plunged into the midst of an economic crisis, Ghanaian cocoa farmers have in recent years begun to cede their plantations to increasingly offensive gold miners in the country.
In 2022, 19,000 hectares of crops had already disappeared, according to figures communicated locally by Ghanaian officials, under the effect of this practice called “ galamsey “. An increasing practice which contributes to reducing cocoa production, already affected by heavy rains this year which accelerated the spread of “swollen shot”, the cocoa tree disease.
Ghana therefore ended its 2022-2023 campaign with 44,000 tonnes of beans which were missing to honor its contracts. The country decided to administratively close the season without waiting for the end of September, and started the news last Friday, which allowed it to announce a new price.
Waiting for the Ivorian price to rise
This communication should, as is often the case, help release onto the local market stocks of cocoa from the last harvest which were still held by the planters, rightly convinced that the next prices were going to be better.
Ivorian cocoa farmers will have to wait another three weeks to find out the new price paid locally. But the tone has just been set: Ivory Coast and Ghana generally avoid having prices that are too far apart, in order to limit illegal trade at their borders.
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