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Inner circles | Ghana
The Cocoa Board, the force powering Ghana's economy

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“West African cocoa cartel battles with the traders”

Ghana, Ivory Coast

West African cocoa cartel battles with the traders

By jointly introducing a premium of $400 per tonne on cocoa beans in autumn 2020, Ivory Coast and Ghana were seeking to ensure that cocoa producers' revenues were maintained. In so doing, however, they sparked off an open war with the big commodity traders, who have since taken steps to get round the measure and avoid paying the premium. This battle of wills has paralysed a sector which has already been badly affected by Covid-19 and speeded up the transformation of the trading sector, encouraging Ghana and Ivory Coast to trade their cocoa beans on their own account. [...]

The Ghana Cocoa Board (Cocobod) headquarter, in Accra. © Ghana Cocoa Board website

Ghana produces, just behind Ivory Coast, almost 45% of the world's cocoa. At the head of this "brown gold" boon is the Ghana Cocoa Board, or "Cocobod", headed since 2017 by Joseph Boahen Aidoo, a loyal supporter of President Nana Akufo-Addo. This body supervises, in close collaboration with the trade and agriculture ministries, an economic sector that generates nearly $2.5bn in exports per year. [...]

Published on 16.07.2021 at 05:00 GMT Reading time 4 minutes

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Inner circles | Ghana
The Cocoa Board, the force powering Ghana's economy