Cocoa prices in interest of farmers — Bortianor MP

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Bortianor-Nglenshi-Amanfro, Mr Bright Kodzo Demorzi, has stated that it is in the interest of cocoa farmers that the producer price of cocoa for the 2012/2013 season is maintained for the 2013/2014 cocoa season.
“In the midst of the declining world price of the commodity, cocoa farmers, who were expecting a downward review of the producer price during the current season were happy that the price had been maintained”, he told the Daily Graphic in reaction to the comments by some members from the Minority side of Parliament in which they expressed disappointment about the failure of the government to increase the producer price of cocoa for the 2013/2014 cocoa season.

In separate interviews with the Daily Graphic, the Minority Spokesperson on Food, Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, and the NPP MP for Akrofrom, Mr Appiah Pinkrah, said among other things that farmers were disappointed about government’s decision not to increase the producer price of cocoa.

But Mr Demorzi, who is an agronomist and member of the Food, Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs Committee, explained that from December 2011, the world price of the commodity hovered around $3,000 and $3,200 per tonne.

The price, according to him, fell to $2,100 in November last year and it is now hovering around $2,300 and $2,400 per metric tonne.

“Looking at the trend, the farmers were even thinking that the price was going to be reduced. For farmers, it is good news that the price has been maintained. They appreciate the government’s gesture and are not disappointed,” he said, explaining that it was when the international price was $3,200 that the producer price was pegged at GH¢3,392 per metric tonne.

Mr Demorzi said it was important for the public to be educated on how the producer price of cocoa was fixed.

He mentioned factors that were considered for the fixing of the producer price of cocoa as the projected FOB in US dollars, the projected exchange rate of the cedi to the dollar and the projected crop side within the season.

“The Producer Price Review Committee, which determines the annual producer price of cocoa, includes the Minister of Finance, farmers,  haulers and the licensed-buying companies (LBCs). It is not as if the government alone sat down and decided the producer price of the commodity; it is not as if the farmers are not aware of what is happening in the cocoa industry internationally,” Mr Demorzi said.

The MP stated that in 1999, when the Cocoa Sector Development Strategy was adopted, one of the main ingredient was to raise progressively the producer price of cocoa 65 per cent of the FOB price in the 1999/2000 season to 70 per cent of the FOB price by 2004 and also to reduce the export tax from about 25 per cent of the FOB to 15 per cent of the FOB in 2004.

However, the government is now paying about 80 per cent of the FOB as producer price to the farmers while the remaining 20 per cent is what is being used for the administration of the cocoa industry, which includes the numerous interventions that the government has put in place.

These interventions, Mr Demorzi said, included the rehabilitation and replanting of the aged and denuded farms, implementation of pest control programmes, the application of fertiliser, improved swollen shoot disease control activities and the partnership with the private sector for effective cocoa extension delivery services to farmers.

“It is based on these that we have to commend the government for maintaining the producer price of the commodity in the face of the declining international price of cocoa,” Mr Demorzi stated.

By Emmanuel Adu Gyamerah/Daily Graphic/Ghana