Dr. Isaac Opoku, Member of Parliament for Offinso and Ranking Member on Parliament’s Food, Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs Committee, has called on the management of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) to be transparent with cocoa farmers and the general public over the challenges confronting the cocoa sector.
According to him, COCOBOD must clearly explain the real causes of its current difficulties instead of offering what he described as vague and evasive explanations.
“They should come clear. They should tell the cocoa farmer what the real problem is and stop beating about the bush,” he said on Channel One TV’s The Point of View on Monday, February 9.
Dr. Opoku argued that the present situation would have been far worse if not for decisions taken by the previous administration to trade some cocoa forward, a move he believes helped cushion the sector against current shocks.
“In fact, they are even lucky that the previous administration traded some cocoa forward. Otherwise, the situation would have been worse than what we are seeing today,” he stated.
He further placed responsibility for the financial and operational challenges facing COCOBOD squarely on the current administration, pointing particularly to exchange rate pressures.
“You can blame the administration. You can put the challenges at the doorstep of the current administration. The exchange rates we are seeing, who caused them?” he questioned.
Dr. Opoku noted that cocoa farmers were paid between January and October under prevailing exchange rates determined by the current government, making it difficult to shift blame elsewhere.
“In any case, when they were paying the cocoa farmer from January through February, March, up to October, what was the exchange rate? They cannot put the blame anywhere else apart from the current administration,” he added.
Addressing concerns surrounding cocoa contract rollovers, Dr. Opoku dismissed claims that the practice is unusual, stressing that it is standard across the global cocoa industry. He explained that production projections are often affected by factors beyond control, including weather conditions, bushfires, and smuggling.
“You do your projections. If you anticipate producing a certain quantity and, for some reason, you are unable to meet that target, you roll over the contracts at the prevailing price. It happens all the time,” he said.
He recalled that when the Nana Addo-led government took office in 2017, it inherited cocoa contract rollovers amounting to about 190,208 tonnes, without attracting public controversy. He also cited Côte d’Ivoire’s rollover of about 500,000 metric tonnes of cocoa in 2024 as further evidence that the practice is not unusual.
“Contract rollovers are standard industry practice. It happens all the time,” Dr. Opoku emphasized.
He warned that even current production projections could still be disrupted by unforeseen events, which would again necessitate contract rollovers.
“If you project 650,000 tonnes and something happens and you are unable to produce that, you roll over at the prevailing price,” he said.
Dr. Opoku’s comments come amid intense public debate over COCOBOD’s inability to meet some cocoa supply contracts and the broader implications for farmers, financing, and the sustainability of Ghana’s cocoa sector.
