Smuggling causes Ghana to lose 160,000 tons of cocoa in the 2023/24 harvest, reveals Cocobod employee

Ghana is facing a severe cocoa crisis in 2023/24, with more than a third of its production lost to smuggling, a senior official at the Cocoa Marketing Board (Cocobod) has revealed. The combination of low local prices, delayed payments to farmers and an unstable currency has led many to sell their crops to increasingly organised trafficking networks, severely impacting the country’s economy. According to Charles Amenyaglo, director of special services at Cocobod, Ghana has lost around 160,000 tonnes of cocoa to smuggling, a figure that has more than tripled compared to the previous season. Production through June reached just 429,323 metric tonnes, less than 55% of the average for previous seasons, leading to one of the worst production declines in over 20 years. In addition to Ghana, Ivory Coast, the world’s largest cocoa producer, has also struggled with poor harvests. The supply deficit, which has reached worrying levels over the past four years, has contributed to the rise in ...