The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has raised concerns over the producer price announced by the NDC Government for the 2026/27 cocoa season, describing the GH¢2,650 per 64kg bag price as not only inadequate but unlawful.
In a press statement dated September 27, 2026, and issued by its Policy Secretariat, the party said the price, announced by the Government on Friday, September 25, represents an increase of just GH¢63, or 2.4 percent, over the reduced price that prevailed at the close of the 2025/26 season. The NPP argued that the figure falls below the statutory minimum set by the Ghana Cocoa Board Act, 2026 (Act 1182), a law it noted was passed by the same government only weeks ago.
The statement recalled that during the 2024 election campaign, leading members of the then opposition NDC — including the current Minister for Food and Agriculture, Hon Eric Opoku; the Minister for Finance, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson; the Minister for Health, Hon Kwabena Mintah Akandoh; and President John Dramani Mahama himself — had promised farmers GH¢6,000 per bag, telling them the then-prevailing GH¢3,100 per bag was exploitative and that they deserved no less than 70 percent of the world market price.
According to the NPP, the Government instead announced a producer price of GH¢3,625 per bag for the 2025/26 season in October 2025, and further reduced it to GH¢2,587 per bag in February 2026 — a mid-season cut of GH¢1,038 which the party described as the first of its kind in the history of Ghana’s cocoa industry and one taken without consultation with farmers or Licensed Buying Companies (LBCs).
The party contended that the GH¢2,650 price does not satisfy Section 57 of the Cocoa Board Act, which requires the producer price to be not less than 70 percent of the Gross Free-on-Board (FOB) price realised by COCOBOD for the season. It argued that for the Government’s claim of 71.18 percent to hold, COCOBOD’s realised Gross FOB price would have to be about US$5,180 per tonne, whereas international cocoa prices over the past three months have ranged between US$5,500 and more than US$6,000 per tonne.
Based on its own computation using the lower end of that price range and including the Living Income Differential (LID) of US$400 per tonne, the NPP put the minimum lawful producer price at GH¢2,968.44 per bag — a shortfall of GH¢318.44 per bag from the announced price, which it said translates into farmers being underpaid by more than GH¢5,000 per tonne of cocoa produced.
The party also referenced a recent report by the Chamber of Cocoa Marketers indicating that cocoa beans delivered to COCOBOD during the 2025/26 crop year, valued at about GH¢4 billion, remain unpaid, questioning what guarantees exist that 2026/27 purchases will be settled promptly given that farmers went unpaid for months in late 2025 and early 2026.
The NPP called on the Government to publish the full computation underlying the GH¢2,650 price, including the realised Gross FOB price, forward contract volumes and prices, the treatment of the LID and the exchange rate applied; to review the producer price upward in compliance with Section 57 of Act 1182; to pay without delay the amounts withheld from farmers following the February 2026 price cut; to settle all outstanding arrears for the 2025/26 crop year; and to set out a credible financing plan guaranteeing prompt payment for the 2026/27 season.
The statement was signed on behalf of the party by Isaac Yaw Opoku (MP), Co-Chair; George Oduro, Co-Chair; and Michael Kwasi Boahen Aidoo, Spokesperson.
The Government is yet to respond to the claims contained in the NPP statement.
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