Cocoa farmers from the Western North Region on Friday petitioned government at the Cocoa Marketing Board Headquarters in Accra to reverse the recent producer price reduction.
Government reduced the cocoa producer price from GH¢3,625.00 to GH¢2,587.00 per bag for the 2025/2026 crop season, representing a 28.6 per cent cut.
The new price, effective February 12, 2026, is GH¢2,587.00 per bag and GH¢41,392.00 per tonne.
Mr Zakaria Musah, popularly known as “Mallam Zack,” told the Ghana News Agency that the current government had promised farmers a better offer during its campaign but disappointed them after the 2024 elections.
“If nothing at all, government should maintain the old price rather than slashing it. We are not asking much but at least restore the old price,” he said.
Mr Richard Asante, alias “Bush,” said the development had discouraged many youth who had taken up farming as their profession.
President John Dramani Mahama has empathised with cocoa farmers at the opening of the Ghana Tree Crops Investment Summit and Exhibition 2026.
He disclosed that he owned a 50-acre cocoa farm and a 100-acre palm plantation.
“I am a cocoa farmer, so when the prices were reduced by government it affected me too. I want to be able to empathise with farmers so that when we take any policy decision, we know its effects on farmers and we feel it,” the President said.
Carrying placards, the farmers chanted songs to express their displeasure.
Some of the inscriptions read: “Cocoa is sweet, but our lives are bitter,” “Government celebrates but our families mourn,” and “Our children are in the house, we cannot afford to pay their school fees.”
