For the 2022-2023 cocoa season, which begins on October 7 in Ghana, the field price is set at 12,800 cedis ($1,248) per ton, or 825,519.18 CFA francs. This price is 21% higher than the rate set during the two previous campaigns (10,560 cedis). The announcement was made on Wednesday 05 October by the Ghanaian Minister of Agriculture, Owusu Afriyie Akoto.
Ghana, the world’s second largest cocoa producer after Ivory Coast, has increased the field price of the brown gold to mitigate the effects of the depreciation of the cedi and also improve the living conditions of producers. This increase is also intended to make up for losses due to problems in the supply of agricultural inputs.
According to the minister, this increase “is proof of the government’s commitment to ensuring a decent income for farmers and making cocoa production profitable. However, it should be noted that despite this increase, the guaranteed field price for Ivorian producers is higher than the one in effect in Ghana. While the price of a kilogram of cocoa for this season is $1.36 in Ivory Coast (900f), Ghanaian producers will have to make do with selling their raw material at $1.2. This difference in remuneration is not so small in a context where commodity prices have soared and supplies of agricultural inputs in African countries have dropped considerably as a result of the war in Ukraine. This invasion of Russia has already resulted in a 13.87% drop in Ghana’s cocoa production for the previous season, to 689,000 tons in 2021/2022, one of the lowest records in 12 years. This year, a stock of 850,000 tons is scheduled to be harvested in the English-speaking state.
Thus, it should be noted that the world cocoa market has recorded a supply deficit during the 2021/2022 season. And for good reason; the harmattan, the violent and dry winds that blow in West Africa. This was compounded by fertilizer shortages due to the war in Ukraine, not to mention the lack of rain in the world’s two main producers. All of these factors have had a detrimental effect on the forest ecology of trees.
It should be noted that the cocoa sector in Ghana is the main driver of the agricultural sector and provides 9% of the country’s GDP.
