Former Deputy Minister for Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs, Yaw Frimpong Addo, has criticised the process leading to the passage of the new Cocoa Bill.

The Manso Adubia MP says key stakeholders were not adequately consulted before the legislation was passed.

According to him, the Minority is not opposed to every provision in the Bill but has identified specific areas it considers problematic for cocoa farmers.

“It’s not everything in the bill that we, the minority, are saying is not good for the farmers. We have listed the key areas where we think are problematic, and that the president should not assent this bill until the until enough consultation is done,” he said.

Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express on Monday, Mr Frimpong Addo also insisted that the Minority’s input was necessary in the passage of such an important piece of legislation.

He said the involvement of the parliamentary Agriculture Committee came too late in the process.

“It came too late in the day when the referral was made that the Agric committee leadership was to join the finance committee and then the legal affairs committee to look at the bill,” he said.

He questioned why a major stakeholder such as the Agriculture Committee was not involved from the beginning.

“A major stakeholder like the Agriculture committee in Parliament. So when all this information was not coming, our leadership made sure that no nobody took part in the in the deliberations at all,” he said.

Mr Frimpong Addo said the Minority’s decision not to participate was informed by what he described as its exclusion from the process from the outset.

“Because in the first place they didn’t see the essence of including the minority in the deliberations from day one, and that for us was not too good for the bill to pass,” he said.

He also raised concerns about the exclusion of cocoa hauliers from consultations on the Bill.

According to him, the people who transport cocoa from producing areas to the ports are important stakeholders in the industry.

“You know, we have hauliers also in the scheme of things when we talk about the cocoa industry, those who haul the cocoa from the hinterlands to the ports, and these people make those stakeholders, they were not consulted. They were not consulted,” he said.

He, therefore, called for a thorough review of the legislation and wider consultations before it is assented to.

“So we think that fundamentally there are problems. There are challenges with the Bill, and we need a thorough look at it,” he said.

Mr Frimpong Addo’s strongest objection, however, was directed at consultations being held with farmer groups after Parliament had already passed the Bill.

“From there, a lot of consultations will have to take place because what they have done is like putting the cart before the horse,” he said.

He said reports that consultations were now being held with farmers’ groups were unacceptable.

“It came to our notice that they are now going round having meetings with farmers’ groups and all that. After the bill has been passed, that is not normal. That’s not correct,” he said.