The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), may rescind the provision of fertilizers, insecticides and other incentives they provide cocoa farmers should smuggling of Ghana’s cocoa beans to neighboring countries continue despite attempts to clamp down on the menace.
Fiifi Boafo, the Public Relations Officer of COCOBOD made this public on the Lowdown show on GhanaWeb TV speaking with Daniel Oduro.
According to him, the cocoa regulator cannot continue to raise revenues to supply cocoa farmers with fertilizers, insecticides and other incentives to facilitate farming only for cocoa beans to be smuggled out of the country by some farmers.
He added that, should cocoa smuggling continue despite efforts to curb it, the institution would be left with no other choice but to consider cancelling the provision of such incentives to cocoa farmers.
He explained, “If it (cocoa smuggling) continues, then COCOBOD would have to take a decision, because if you spend all that amount of money buying fertilizers, buying insecticides and all that to support the farmers and it is smuggled out of the system, where would we (COCOBOD) be able to have the money to pay for all these services?”
“…This is because these services are funded by revenue from the industry so if such revenue goes out of the country, then it will be difficult to support such services,” he continued.
Although Fiifi Boafo acknowledged that, government’s inability to meet the desire price for cocoa is a major factor for cocoa smuggling, he was quick to add that it is not a justifiable reason since cocoa smuggling leads to loss of revenue to both farmers and the state.