Ghana farmer video highlights plight of cocoa workers facing climate and financial challenges

An impactful new video produced by the recently-launched African Cocoa Marketplace (ACM) industry support services has revealed the plight of cocoa farmers in West Africa, who are continuing to struggle in growing enough beans to earn a living amid major economic and climate-based challenges. While farmers have welcomed the recent news that Ghana and Ivory Coast have increased the farmgate price (or producer price) for the prevailing 2023-24 season, John Narh Adamnor, a small-holder cocoa farmer in the Eastern Region of Ghana, says his yield is effectively down by two-thirds. His three-acre plot has been in his family for over 60 years, and his trees used to produce approximately 15 bags of cocoa each year, ‘But this year, I couldn’t get even 5 bags. ‘This shows that cocoa has failed us,’ he says. In the wake of major cocoa prices rises, that have tripled on the cocoa Futures commodity market in New York to $10,000 a tonne in the space of a year, Ghana has increased its prices by ...