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If the government doesn’t raise the price of producing cocoa for the 2022–2023 growing season, cocoa farmers in Gyampokrom, in the Sefwi Juaboso District of the Western North Region, have threatened to “smuggle” their cocoa products to Ivory Coast.
They want the price of a bag of cocoa, which is now 66 dollars, increased to 1,200 dollars.
Farmers claim that they are not exempt from the effects of the current economic climate.
Despite this, the price of agricultural materials, labor, and other services has skyrocketed.
In order to avoid selling their cocoa to the Ivory Coast, they pleaded with the government to raise the price.
“In this region, we harvest a lot of cocoa, yet we receive no pay for our efforts.
We cultivate different crops and engage in a variety of farming occupations, but we are still unable to pay for our children’s education.
Since we are lucky to be close to the Ivory Coast border and have heard that the cocoa industry in Côte d’Ivoire is now lucrative, they intimated, “If the government does not boost the prices for us, we would export the products.
Ayisi Kumah Thomas Kwesi, president of the Coalition for Cocoa Sector Reforms, has urged the government to critically examine the position of farmers, who continue to live in abject poverty.
“Today, due to the worsening living conditions of cocoa growers, farmers are forced to sell their fields to galamsey operators in urgent situations.
The illegal miners are purchasing and destroying forested areas, agricultural lands, and bodies of water.
It is foreseeable that if this pattern persists, galamsey actions may drive farmers from their properties.
We want to emphasize to Cocobod and the government that cocoa farmers are becoming more vulnerable as a result of their increasing poverty.
They should receive a farm gate price increase of at least 100% starting in the 2022–2023 season, he said.
Source: Ghanatodayonline.com
