According to Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, comparing the the new price with the current rate of 17 percent inflation, the cocoa farmer has been made even poorer by the NDC government.
Government on October 1, 2016 announced a new price for producers of cocoa. The new price for the 2016/2017 season is GHS475 per bag of 64kg. This compares with the 2015/2016 price of GHS425 – an increase of GHS50 or 11.76 percent.
Mr the Minority Leaders in a statement issued yesterday noted that in this period where the world price of cocoa was rising, with inflation going up with a fast depreciating Cedi, the best that the NDC government could do for farmers was to increase the producer price of cocoa much more significantly than it has done.
"Characteristically, the Government refused to do so. To add insult to injury, the government refused to pay the bonuses due to the farmers worth over GHS100 million Cedis. It is important to emphasize that the cocoa producer price was kept unchanged throughout crop years 2011/2012 to 2013/2014," the he opined.
According to the Minority Leader, due the substantial decline in the real producer prices and incomes of cocoa farmers over the period 2011/2012 – 2014/2015, Parliament in August, 2014 recommended that the new producer price for crop year 2014/2015 should be fixed at GH¢479 per bag.
However, contrary to their proposal, the NDC government chose to fix the producer price at GH¢345 per bag for the 2014/2015 season. This was followed by a 5.8 percent increase in the producer price to GH¢425 per bag in the 2015/2016 season.
In the view Mr Kyei-Mensah, with the rather very low producer prices awarded to cocoa farmers from 2011/2012 to 2015/2016, one would have expected that the NDC government would have made amends and taken advantage of the colossal savings it made in those years to correct the injustice meted out to cocoa farmers, to forestall their sinking fortunes.
Deflating the NDC’s propaganda on the percentage increase in the price, he stated that it was rather wrong for anyone to compare the increase of 11.76 percent to the 10 percent increase awarded to cocoa farmers in Cote D’Ivoire because inflation in Cote D’Ivoire is less than 5 percent, making the Ivorian cocoa farmer is far better off.
Explaining further, the Minority Leader pointed out that lending rate in Ghana is about 35 percent, compared to that of Cote D’Ivoire which is as low as 5 percent.
"Therefore, if a farmer took a loan to start up a venture in cocoa production or expand his farm, he would be in serious trouble after this 11.76 percent increase. The Ghana Cedi has depreciated by more than 14 percent this year and if one factored this into the equation the Ghanaian cocoa farmer is rendered much much poorer," he stressed.
The Ghana COCOBOD claims it spent the equivalent of over GHS838 million in 2015/2016 importing and distributing fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides and other chemicals to cocoa farmers; and another US$150 million on cocoa roads, among others. The figure of GHS838 million is nearly the total Budget Allocation to both the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the Ministry of Fisheries and Aqua culture Development in financial year 2016.
However, in spite of such huge expenditures, many cocoa farmers from Sefwi, Ahafo, Volta and other producing areas complain of inadequate supply of chemicals.
"This is not surprising, since reports persist of massive smuggling of cocoa chemicals across our borders to other West African countries including Togo, Burkina Faso, Cote D’Ivoire, Cameroun, Nigeria, Benin and Niger. The ‘free inputs’ policy of the NDC government is obviously fueling the smuggling of these chemicals," the Minority Leader lamented.