In December last year, The Chronicle carried a front page story which was attributed to Mr Joseph Boahen Aidoo, Chief Executive (CE) of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), that farmers in Oti and Volta regions were smuggling almost every single cocoa bean they produce to the Republic of Togo.
From February to October, last year, he said COCOBOD purchased only 70 bags of cocoa beans from farmers in the two regions, despite having the potential to offer the country about 10,000 metric tons of cocoa. Mr Joseph Aidoo also alleged that the two regions accounted for the overall shortfalls in cocoa production in the country.
He explained that last year, COCOBOD’s target was about 800,000 metric tons, but they were limited to the region of 650,000 metric tons. Blaming the situation on the farmers, he said “but for the smuggling, we should now be doing about 850,000 metric.”
Looking at the massive publicity that was given to this story, one would have thought that those behind this smuggling business will stop, but alas, that has not happened. Just yesterday, Starrfm.com.gh reported that the National Anti-Cocoa Smuggling Task Force of COCOBOD has successfully confiscated 634 bags of cocoa beans being smuggled out of Ghana in the Eastern Region.
The operation, according to the news portal, took place over a month of sustained intelligence-led efforts. On April 15, 2024 a truck carrying 504 bags of cocoa beans hidden in poultry feed products was seized. Another 130 bags of cocoa beans concealed under gravel, in a tipper truck, were confiscated on May 7, 2024 at Mpraeso in the Kwahu South Municipality.
The suspects, the story continued, were trailed from Suhum to Kwahu Adawso, where they were intercepted trying to cross the Afram River by ferry. They were reportedly attempting to exit the Volta Region towards Togo.
The Chronicle finds this development very disturbing. It is impossible to weed out criminals from every society, but these smugglers who are obviously criminals should have known that cocoa is the backbone of Ghana’s economy and that their actions can seriously affect the financial standing of the country.
Interestingly, these are people who would be going round complaining about the hardship being experienced in the country, without knowing that they are the major contributors to the very hardship they are talking about.
Every year, COCOBOD is able to raise about $1.5 billion in the form of syndicated loans to shore up the forex reserves of the country. If we have enough dollars circulating in the country, it will stabilise the US greenbacks. The concomitant effect is that prices of local goods and services will also stabilise. Unfortunately, because we are unable to meet our cocoa production targets, the volume of the syndicated cocoa loan has also dropped.
According to Reuters report, Ghana secured $1.13 billion for the purchase of cocoa for the 2022-2023 crop season. Though the figure, according to COCOBOD, was oversubscribed by $130 million, it still fell short of the $1.5 billion secured the previous year.
We believe the drop could be attributed to the fall in our cocoa production as we were able to produce 650,000 metric tonnes instead of the 850, 000 tonnes we had targeted. Obviously, COCOBOD could not have gone to secure a loan that they knew they could not re-pay at the end of the day because of the low production of the commodity.
This is the reason why The Chronicle is worried about the persistent smuggling of the commodity to neighbouring countries to sell even when the government had adjusted the local price to appreciable level. In our opinion, the only way to stop these nation wreckers is to make them face the consequences of their actions.
We are, therefore, calling on COCOBOD to liaise with the police to ensure that those who have been caught are jailed after going through the due process of the law.
This, we believe, will put the fear of God in others who may also be contemplating of going into the cocoa smuggling business. Apart from this, COCOBOD must also embark upon education drive to sensitise the citizens about the harm they are causing to the national economy anytime they smuggle cocoa to either Togo or Ivory Coast. This country is the only one that we have. We all, therefore, have the collective duty of helping to build it.
