Joseph Boahene Aidoo – CEO of COCOBOD
REGULATORS OF the cocoa industry from Ghana and Ivory
Coast yesterday began negotiations with international traders of the produce, as
well as global chocolate and confectionary manufacturers for higher cocoa
prices for farmers in these two countries.
According to the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) and
its Ivorian counterpart, Le Conseil du Café du Cacao – the two regulatory
bodies hosting the meeting on behalf of their respective governments – incomes
for smallholder farmers who collectively laid the foundation for cocoa
production in their countries, compared to the amount of profits realised in
the industry, were a pittance.
The two-day meeting which ends today is taking
place at the Movenpick Hotel, Accra.
Joseph Boahen Aidoo, Chief Executive Officer
(CEO) of COCOBOD, in a welcome address, advocated a balance between sustainable
cocoa production and a reasonable living income based on a fair price for
smallholder cocoa farmers.
He said the meeting had been jointly called in
response to key indicative areas under the framework of the 2017 Ghana – Cote
d’Ivoire declaration on cocoa inspired by President Akufo-Addo and President
Alassane Ouattara – presidents of the two countries.
“The single item agenda for today and tomorrow
is to establish a living income which we propose to achieve through the floor
price, an FOB price that will enable the farmer meet his operational costs in a
responsible and sustainable manner and have a margin for the upkeep and
maintenance of his household and still have the margin for any investment of
his choice.
“Whereas more than enough consensus has been
lost on various cocoa platforms on the need to have a better price, and
remunerative income for cocoa farmers, the whats and hows have continued to
remain elusive,” he stated.
Referring to recent ICCO meetings in Berlin 2018
and Abidjan 2019, where he said the issue of decent income was high on the
agenda, the price situation has remained same.
“From my personal observation for the past two
years and a half at the international conferences of the Cocoa Merchants
Association of America and the World Cocoa Foundation, the cocoa price question
has featured in all instances. These conferences, however, have not given the farmer
any hope of stability regarding the price.”
He said given the neglect accorded the issue, deforestation
in cocoa producing countries had gone worse while child labour was on the ascendency,
adding that “smallholder farmers are the most disadvantaged.”
Since 2016, the price of cocoa has seen a steep
decline from over $3000/ton to below $1900/ton, he stated.
Kone Brahima Yves, Director General of Le
Conseil du Café du Cacao, Ivory Coast, in a speech, expressed the belief that
the two-day collaboration would give birth to a general consensus for the
improvement of the incomes of smallholder farmers.
Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, Minister of Food and
Agriculture, commenting on the issue, said the toil of smallholder cocoa
farmers laid the foundation for the cocoa industry, yet it was least rewarded.
Calling for an adequate compensation for the
farmers, he called on stakeholders to ensure that both upstream and downstream
players had decent remuneration to propel them to work harder to meet market demands.
“Majority of farmers in both countries live in
deplorable conditions, which serve as a disincentive for continuing to sustain
their work. Farmers do not have the means to renew their cocoa capacity and
they see such constraints as a threat to the sustainability of cocoa
production,” Mr. Akoto said.
“The temptation of alternative incomes will push
farmers to switch to other cash crop areas that will satisfy their economic
needs. Let’s avoid entrenched positions and consider the living incomes of cocoa
farmers,” he added.
Mamadou Sangafowa Coulibaly, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of Ivory Coast, in a remark, called for the need to relook the distribution of incomes along the cocoa value chain, adding that out of the $120 billion profits that are realised in the cocoa industry worldwide, only 6 per cent go to producing countries.
BY Samuel Boadi
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