The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) on 25 September 2026 raised the cocoa producer price by GH¢63 to GH¢2,650 per 64-kilogramme bag without disclosing the world price used.
The 2.4 percent increase takes the price from GH¢41,392 to GH¢42,400 a tonne for the 2026/27 season. COCOBOD says the figure represents 71.18 percent of the realised gross free-on-board (FOB) value of Ghana’s cocoa. It did not publish the international benchmark, the exchange rate, or whether it used spot or futures prices. Without those, the claim cannot be checked. For about 800,000 cocoa-farming households, the answer determines whether they are receiving the share the law now guarantees them.
What the law requires
COCOBOD Chief Executive Dr Randy Abbey announced the price in Accra after consultations with the Ministry of Finance, farmers and the Chamber of Cocoa Marketers, which represents licensed buying companies, hauliers and processors. He said the price could be reviewed if market conditions changed.
The new Ghana Cocoa Board Act, 2026 (Act 1182) sets a floor: the producer price must be at least 70 percent of the gross FOB price realised by COCOBOD in a season. Working backwards from COCOBOD’s own figures, a producer price of GH¢42,400 at a 71.18 percent share implies an FOB value of about GH¢59,570 a tonne, or roughly US$5,180 at GH¢11.50 to the dollar.
That is below where the market has been trading. Local business reports put cocoa futures near US$5,500 a tonne and spot prices around US$5,600 on 25 September. The gap is at the centre of the dispute.
When the government set the August 2025 price, it published the basis: a benchmark of US$7,200 a tonne, a 70 percent producer share and an exchange rate of GH¢10.25 to the dollar. This year’s announcement gave no comparable figures.
Opposition puts price at GH¢2,968
Dr Isaac Yaw Opoku, co-chair of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) policy committee on agriculture, said the lawful price should be GH¢2,968.40 a bag. He took a world price of US$5,500 a tonne, added the US$400 Living Income Differential that buyers pay on top, and converted the total at GH¢11.50. He then applied the 70 percent minimum. On his calculation, farmers are losing about GH¢318 on every bag.
He asked whether COCOBOD had left the Living Income Differential out of its calculation, and called for the full method to be published. “The cocoa farmer is not asking for charity,” he said.
Opoku also cited figures from the Chamber of Cocoa Marketers showing about GH¢4 billion owed for beans delivered to COCOBOD in the 2025/26 season. He said the outstanding debts had left licensed buying companies and farmers unsure whether they would be paid on time this season. COCOBOD has not publicly responded to his figures.
Two seasons of swings
The new price follows two years of sharp swings. Ghana paid GH¢3,000 a bag at the start of 2024/25, after world prices hit record highs, and raised it to GH¢3,100 in November 2024. The current government set GH¢3,228.75 in August 2025 and increased it to GH¢3,625 in October 2025 after protests from farmers. It then cut the price to GH¢2,587 in February 2026 as world prices fell. The NPP says the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) promised farmers GH¢6,000 a bag during the 2024 campaign.
Even so, Ghanaian farmers are currently paid more than their neighbours. Côte d’Ivoire, the world’s largest producer, kept its farmgate price at 1,200 CFA francs a kilogramme for its 2026/27 main crop, about US$2,120 a tonne. Ghana’s new price is worth roughly US$3,690 a tonne at about GH¢11.48 to the dollar.
GH¢16.3 billion to fund purchases
COCOBOD is also changing how it pays for the crop. Its wholly owned subsidiary, Cocoa Capital PLC, has Securities and Exchange Commission approval to raise up to GH¢16.3 billion on the domestic market. Of that, GH¢14 billion will come from commercial paper, issued in tranches, to fund bean purchases this season. The remaining GH¢2.3 billion will come from medium- to long-term bonds to refinance COCOBOD’s older debt.
Repayments will be backed by money due under selected forward sales contracts. That money will be paid into ring-fenced accounts. Absa Bank Ghana, CalBank, Fincap Securities, GCB Bank, One Africa Securities and Stanbic Bank Ghana are managing the issue. Cocoa Capital said the first tranche of commercial paper would be issued in the coming weeks.
Meta description: COCOBOD’s GH¢2,650 cocoa price is up 2.4%, but the world price behind it was not disclosed. The NPP says the law points to GH¢2,968.40 a bag.
