[ad_1]
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recommends that the government adjust the price to cocoa production to take into account the evolution of international cocoa prices.
According to the IMF, the downward adjustment had become necessary because the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) was facing a funding gap of 1 billion GHS due to the government's inability to reduce producer prices paid to cocoa farmers at some point. fall.
In its seventh and eighth reviews, the IMF explained that this adjustment was necessary to prevent COCOBOD from closing the growing financing gap under the recently concluded External Credit Facility (ECF) program.
The fund said that although the government and COCOBOD have taken appropriate measures to provide temporary relief, "more is needed to strengthen COCOBOD's financial situation".
Cocoa price
Before the start of the cocoa season, usually in October of each year, COCOBOD normally announces a producer price – the producer price – that it will pay farmers for their beans during the crop year.
This price was increased by 11.76% in October 2016 to cover the 2016/2017 season.
Since then, it has remained unchanged at 7,600 GHS per tonne, which corresponds to 5475 GHS per 64 kilogram bag of gross weight.
During the same period, however, the price of cocoa in the international market fell dramatically, rising from an average value of $ 2,500 per ton in November 2016 to $ 2,287 per tonne, according to the report. International Cocoa Organization (ICCO).
The price of cocoa remained bearish throughout 2017, rising only in October before falling back to the end of December at $ 1,917.68 a tonne, according to the World Cocoa Organization.
In 2018, ICCO data showed that prices steadily strengthened to reach a high of $ 2,659.9 per tonne in May, before fluctuating during the rest of the year.
The Bloomberg terminal, which also tracks world prices for the crop, quoted it at $ 2,245 per ton on the morning of April 25.
Thus, keeping the price at 7,600 GPH per tonne while the world price of cocoa collapses means that COCOBOD has accumulated losses, which the IMF currently estimates at 1 billion GHS.
-Graphic.com
Source link
