Ghana’s cocoa farmers are fuming with rage after the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government announced a paltry GH¢63 increase in the producer price of cocoa, describing it as a slap in the face and a betrayal of their trust.
Government announced a marginal increase in the price of cocoa for the 2026/27 season, moving it from GH¢2,587 to GH¢2,650 per 64kg bag.
The producer price per tonne also increased from GH¢41,392 to GH¢42,400, representing a 2.4 percent rise.
However, many farmers who are expressing their anger on social media, said this is contrary to NDC’s political campaign promise of giving them at least GH¢6,000 per bag.
The Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Dr. Randy Abbey, announced the new farmgate price on Friday, September 25, 2026, a minimal adjustment that has left cocoa farmers highly frustrated across the country.
The new price remains GH¢975 below the GH¢3,625 producer price announced in October 2025.
It is also GH¢350 below the GH¢3,000 per bag for the 2024/2025 season and GH¢450 below the GH¢3,100 announced in November 2024.
According to the hardworking cocoa farmers, the latest increment cannot even buy a bag of fertilizer amid soaring input costs and high cost of living.
Dr. Abbey tried to justify the increment, claiming it represents 71.18% of the FOB value under the new Cocoa Board Act.
However, for the ordinary farmer battling high labour costs, a weakening cedi and expensive agro-chemicals, the GH¢63 top-up is nothing but an insult, peanuts for the golden pod that feeds the nation.
The marginal increase came after the same NDC government slashed the price from GH¢3,625 to GH¢2,587 just seven months ago.
COCOBOD claimed the new producer price represents 71.18 percent of the realised gross Free-On-Board (FOB) value. However, the announcement has left critical information undisclosed, raising questions about how the 71.18 percent was calculated.
Issues of transparency
The main issue is not only the size of the increase but the lack of critical information needed to assess the pricing formula.
Even though COCOBOD provided the final producer price and stated that it represented 71.18 percent of realised gross FOB value, it did not disclose the international cocoa price, the Cedi-Dollar exchange rate, or whether the calculation is based on the spot or futures market.
These figures are particularly important because government has previously provided the underlying assumptions when announcing producer prices.
For example, the August 2025 price of GH¢3,228.75 per 64kg bag was accompanied by a stated benchmark of US$7,200 per tonne, a producer share of 70 percent and an exchange rate of GH¢10.25 to US$1.
Lack of comparable information in the latest announcement makes it difficult for farmers, industry stakeholders and the public to independently assess how the GH¢2,650 price was derived.
World price not mentioned
In announcing the new price, COCOBOD failed to disclose the world market price used.
The world market price is critical because international prices are a major component in determining the value of Ghana’s cocoa.
Cocoa futures were trading towards US$5,500 per tonne, while the spot price was hovering around US$5,600 per tonne on Friday, September 25, 2026.
In spite of this, the announcement did not indicate whether either market reference, or another benchmark, was used.
COCOBOD also did not disclose the Cedi-to-Dollar exchange rate applied.
Without these statistics, it is difficult to independently verify the claim that GH¢2,650 represents 71.18 percent of realised gross FOB.
Undisclosed use of spot or futures price
Another major gap is whether the new price is based on the spot market or the futures market, particularly given Ghana’s long-standing practice of forward sale of cocoa.
The distinction is important because Ghana has traded on the futures market for more than 50 years, using a fixed producer price to protect farmers from day-to-day movements.
While that provides stability, it can also mean local prices lag behind sharp international movements.
The question is particularly relevant because government had earlier indicated it was adopting the spot price approach.
Price volatility over two seasons under NPP
The latest adjustment comes against substantial changes over the past two seasons under the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government.
For the 2024/2025 season, the Nana Akufo-Addo-led NPP government increased the producer price to GH¢48,000 per tonne, equivalent to GH¢3,000 per 64kg bag.
This was a dramatic increase from GH¢20,928 per tonne, or GH¢1,308 per bag, at the opening of the 2023/2024 season, an unprecedented 129.36 percent jump.
The sharp increase followed a major surge in international prices.
Spot prices rose from around US$2,000 per tonne in March 2023 to a peak of US$12,072 per tonne in February 2024, before falling to US$7,960 in September 2024.
On the futures market, prices moved from US$2,200 in March 2023 to above US$10,000 in February 2024, before declining to US$6,246 in September 2024.
The price was increased again in November 2024 to GH¢3,100 per bag.
During the 2025/2026 season, the NDC government subsequently increased the price on August 4, 2025, to GH¢3,228.75 per bag.
That price was stated to represent 70 percent of gross FOB value of US$7,200 per tonne, using an average exchange rate of GH¢10.25 to US$1.By mid-2025, international prices had stabilised but remained around US$10,000 per tonne, a 300 percent increase compared with beginning of 2024.
The August 2025 increase attracted criticism as inadequate relative to prevailing international prices.
GH¢3,625 price later reversed
Following public uproar and a campaign promise by the then opposition to increase the price to at least GH¢6,000 per bag, government subsequently increased the price to GH¢3,625 per bag effective October 3, 2025.
Unfortunately, the price did not last through the season as it was subsequently reduced to GH¢2,587 per bag, a significant reversal and the benchmark from which the latest 2026/2027 increase was calculated.
