Claim: A deputy national communication officer of the National Democratic Congress says that cocoa producer price has not increased since 2012.
Verdict: This is false. Between 2012 and 2023, the Producer Price Review Committee of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) made several revisions to Ghana’s Cocoa prices.
Full Text
A deputy national communications officer of the National Democratic Congress, Malik Basintale, has accused the government of doing very little to improve the living conditions of people living in the Assin North constituency of the Central Region.
He said the government’s failure to increase cocoa producer prices had brought hardship to people in the Assin North as its residents are predominantly farmers.
He made the claim on the June 26, 2023, edition of Big Issue on the Accra-based channel, TV3.
“Assin North is a typical farming community. These are people who are engaged in cocoa production. These are people who are interested in cocoa produce. We went there, and they told us that under the era of the National Democratic Congress if you sell a bag of cocoa for GHC 450.00, you can buy more bags of cement, roofing sheets and wood and start a construction project. But under the NPP, cocoa production price has not increased,” he asserted.
The claim can be found between minutes 39:28 and 40:15 of the live-streamed show on Facebook.
Verification
In Ghana, the review of cocoa prices is determined by a Producer Price Review Committee (PPRC).
During our investigation, we noticed that since 2016 successive governments have increased cocoa prices.
For the 2019/2020 cocoa season, the price of a 62.5-kilogramme bag of the commodity was increased from GH 475.00 to GHC 515.00.
The producer price of cocoa in Ghana has increased by 8.42 per cent, moving the commodity’s price from GH¢475 to GH¢515 for the 2019/2020 cocoa season.
The cost was increased to GHC 660.00 for the 2020/2021 cocoa season.
For the 2021/2022 cocoa season, the Committee agreed to maintain the GHC 660.00 per bag cost.
On October 6, 2022, the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) announced a 21 per cent increment in the producer price of cocoa. The increment brought the price of a 64kg bag of the commodity to GHC 800.00.
Conclusion
It is not true that Cocoa producer prices have not been reviewed upward since 2016.
