{"id":6134,"date":"2024-05-27T09:37:18","date_gmt":"2024-05-27T09:37:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/?p=6134"},"modified":"2024-05-27T09:37:21","modified_gmt":"2024-05-27T09:37:21","slug":"cocobod-will-borrow-up-to-1-5bn-for-2024-25-cocoa-purchases-sources-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/?p=6134","title":{"rendered":"Cocobod will borrow up to $1.5bn for 2024-25 cocoa purchases, sources say"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ghana&#8217;s cocoa regulator will borrow up to $1.5 billion by September to finance 2024\/25 cocoa purchases and compensate for low output, two COCOBOD sources with knowledge of the arrangement said on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The world&#8217;s second-largest cocoa producer after neighbouring Ivory Coast uses an annual syndicated loan to finance bean purchases from farmers. It is usually agreed at the start of the season in September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But this year&#8217;s $800 million loan faced delays due to low cocoa output so far this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">COCOBOD has since withdrawn $600 million and cancelled the remainder as the season&#8217;s cocoa output is seen almost 40% below forecast \u2013 unable to guarantee the full loan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;A request for proposal sent to banks indicates COCOBOD will borrow up to $1.5 billion next season. It is understood the banks are sizing it and together (with COCOBOD), they will decide an optimal amount,&#8221; said one COCOBOD source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A second COCOBOD source said they were confident the syndication would go through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At least one international bank has been to Ghana to inspect cocoa farms before deciding on the offer, while another is scheduled to visit next month, the same source said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Production is expected to recover to 810,000 metric tons next season, the sources said, asking not to be named because they have not been allowed to speak to media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"ose-youtube ose-uid-ecaf912038f19413c0b32704fb137167 ose-embedpress-responsive\" style=\"width:400px; height:400px; max-height:400px; max-width:100%; display:inline-block;\" data-embed-type=\"Youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowFullScreen=\"true\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wB1l0wBm1Gg?feature=oembed&color=red&rel=0&controls=1&start=&end=&fs=0&iv_load_policy=0&autoplay=0&mute=0&modestbranding=0&cc_load_policy=1&playsinline=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; encrypted-media;accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;gyroscope;picture-in-picture clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen referrerpolicy=\"origin\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">COCOBOD did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ghana&#8217;s cocoa production has been affected by adverse weather, disease and cocoa smuggling. It is expected to be almost 40% below target in the 2023\/24 season, according to COCOBOD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The sector regulator said it lost about 150,000 tons of cocoa beans to smuggling and illegal gold mining known locally as galamsey in the 2022\/23 season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It expects even greater losses this season as a global rise in cocoa prices is an incentive for more smuggling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Swollen shoot virus wiped out around 590,000 hectares of farmland between 2018 and 2024, according to COCOBOD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One source said they were confident Ghana would still meet next season&#8217;s target of 810,000 tons as the weather is expected to improve, and rehabilitated cocoa farms will boost output.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ghana&#8217;s cocoa export revenue fell nearly 50% year-on-year in the first four months of the year, central bank data showed this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ghana&#8217;s cocoa regulator will borrow up to $1.5 billion by September to finance 2024\/25 cocoa purchases and compensate for low output, two COCOBOD sources with knowledge of the arrangement said on Sunday. The world&#8217;s second-largest cocoa producer after neighbouring Ivory Coast uses an annual syndicated loan to finance bean purchases from farmers. It is usually [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-general-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6134"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6137,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6134\/revisions\/6137"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}