The Ghana Civil Society Cocoa Platform which advocates for the welfare of cocoa farmers is calling on COCOBOD to increase the living income differential of cocoa farmers to a minimum of GHS672.6 ($118.00) per bag (62.5kg) of cocoa beans for the 2020/2021 cocoa crop season.

In a statement by the Ghana Civil Society Cocoa Platform, COCOBOD is being urged to as a matter of urgency, realise the purpose for instituting the Living Income Differential so as to make up for the losses made in the fall in international cocoa price as a result of Covid-19.

In July 2019, Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire that control over 60 per cent of world cocoa production, agreed on a floor price of $2,600 per tonne of cocoa beans and also a Living Income Differential (LID) of $400 per tonne of cocoa to be paid by chocolate and cocoa processing companies to farmers commencing in the 2020/21 cocoa season.

Based on the 2019/2020 parameters for calculating the net Freight on Board (FoB) for cocoa beans, we expect the net FoB for 2020/2021 cocoa season to be not less than 90 per cent of the prevailing world cocoa market price. In effect, they expect the net FoB price of cocoa beans to be not less than $2,227.