NPP describes GH¢2,650 cocoa producer price as unfair and unlawful
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has criticised the producer price for the 2026/27 cocoa season announced by the government, describing it as inadequate and unlawful.
In a press statement dated September 27, 2026, and issued by its Policy Secretariat, the party said the price of GH¢2,650 per 64kg bag, announced on Friday, September 25, 2026, represents an increase of just GH¢63, or 2.4 per cent, over the reduced price that prevailed at the close of the 2025/26 season.
The NPP said the price falls below the statutory minimum set under the Ghana Cocoa Board Act, 2026 (Act 1182), which was passed by the current government only weeks ago.
Broken promises
The party accused the National Democratic Congress (NDC) of reneging on its 2024 campaign promise to pay cocoa farmers GH¢6,000 per bag.
It recalled that leading figures of the then opposition NDC, including President John Mahama, Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, Food and Agriculture Minister Eric Opoku and Health Minister Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, toured cocoa-growing areas and assured farmers they deserved no less than 70 per cent of the world market price.
According to the NPP, the government in October 2025 announced GH¢3,625 per bag for the 2025/26 season, far short of the GH¢6,000 promised, before reducing it to GH¢2,587 per bag in February 2026.
The party described the GH¢1,038 mid-season cut as the first of its kind in the history of Ghana’s cocoa industry, adding that the reduction was arbitrary and unlawful because it was taken by an emergency Cabinet decision without consultation with farmers, Licensed Buying Companies and other stakeholders.
It further argued that the producer price announced at the start of a season constituted a guaranteed minimum for the entire crop year, which could not be revised downwards to the detriment of producers.
“The difference between the announced 2025/26 price and the reduced price remains a debt owed to every farmer affected by the cut,” the statement said.
Breach of Act 1182
On the new price, the NPP cited Section 57 of Act 1182, which provides that “the producer price for a crop season shall not be less than 70% of the Gross Free-on-Board (FOB) price realized by the Cocoa Board for that crop season.
“While government asserts that GH¢2,650 represents 71.18 per cent of the Gross FOB price, the NPP disputed the computation, arguing that COCOBOD’s realised Gross FOB price would have to be approximately US$5,180 per tonne for that claim to hold.
The party noted that international cocoa prices over the past three months have ranged between US$5,500 and more than US$6,000 per tonne, and questioned whether COCOBOD had included the Living Income Differential of US$400 per tonne paid by buyers on Ghanaian cocoa.
Using the lower end of the prevailing price range, the NPP calculated the statutory minimum at GH¢2,968.44 per bag, leaving a shortfall of GH¢318.44 on the announced price.
The computation is based on an average world market price of US$5,500 per tonne, plus US$400 LID, giving a gross price of US$5,900 per tonne.
At an average exchange rate of GH¢11.50 to US$1, this translates to GH¢67,850 per tonne, with 70 per cent amounting to GH¢47,495 per tonne, or GH¢2,968.44 per 64kg bag when divided by 16 bags per tonne.
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