Private legal practitioner Victoria Bright has called for urgent and decisive action to address the growing challenges confronting Ghana’s cocoa sector, stressing the need for structural reforms to protect farmers and sustain the industry.

Speaking on the JoyNews AM Show on 2 March, Ms Bright said cocoa remains a structural pillar of Ghana’s economy but expressed concern about the declining participation of young people in the sector.

“Cocoa, as I mentioned earlier, remains a structural pillar of our economy, and one of the things that has been bothering me for some time is the lack of participation of young people in that industry,” she said.

She noted that the average cocoa farmer is ageing, with many having spent between 40 and 50 years working in the sector despite the physically demanding nature of the job.

Ms Bright argued that cocoa farmers ought to be prosperous, given the revenue generated from their labour, adding that their current living conditions remain a matter of national concern.

“We use the money that they actually produce, and so the situation they find themselves in is not something anybody is happy about. I don’t think the President is happy about it,” she said, adding that patriotic Ghanaians stand firmly with cocoa farmers despite the sector’s difficulties.

She further highlighted Ghana’s declining position in global cocoa production, noting that although the country once ranked as the world’s leading producer, it has since been overtaken by the Ivory Coast and now faces increasing competition from Ecuador.

According to her, the industry is at a critical turning point requiring bold decisions.

“We are now facing a moment of structural truth in our cocoa industry. We have to confront it head-on,” she emphasised.

Ms Bright also referenced an upcoming bill aimed at reforming the cocoa sector, stating that the success of any reform package should be measured by its ability to prevent recurring financial bailouts.

“For me, wherever we end up, whatever reform package we finally come up with, the test is simple: will it reduce future bailouts or merely delay and postpone them again?” she questioned.

She warned that without meaningful structural change, the sector risks remaining trapped in a cycle of repeated interventions.

“Are we going to be on a hamster wheel and keep going round and round, or are we really going to change the whole structure of this sector to benefit both the economy and the farmers?” she asked.

Ms Bright also expressed concern about proposals involving automatic pricing adjustments, cautioning that sharp drops in international cocoa prices without stabilisation mechanisms could leave farmers bearing the greatest burden.

“If prices drop sharply and there’s no stabilisation, then the farmer becomes like a shock absorber for international commodity traders,” she explained.

She therefore called for the introduction of a guaranteed producer price and a stabilisation fund to protect farmers from market volatility.

“At the end of the day, without that buffer, we’re not really reforming risk — we’re just redistributing the risk,” she said, stressing that farmers remain the hardest-working yet weakest actors within the cocoa value chain.

Describing the issues as deep and highly pertinent, Ms Bright urged policymakers to ensure that Ghana’s cocoa financing architecture becomes resilient to global price fluctuations rather than structurally fragile.

She concluded that meaningful reform must strengthen the sector’s resilience while improving the welfare of farmers, whose contributions remain central to Ghana’s economic stability.