Deputy Finance Minister Fiifi Kwetey has described as untenable demands for further increases in producer price of cocoa by the opposition New Patriotic Party. According to him, the 35.29 per cent increases announced in October is in the interest of the farmers and the economy of Ghana. MP for Kwadaso, Dr Owusu Akoto argued on Wednesday that the increases were meager and accounted for the increased smuggling of the commodity to neighbouring countries who were offering slightly higher prices. “If you look at the rate of smuggling taking place on the borders of Ghana and Togo and the borders of Ghana and Ivory Coast that should tell you something. Because they are receiving a price which is far higher than the Ghanaian farmer is receiving although the two farmers are on the same world market selling the commodity,” he told Citi News. He said government should up the selling price from 2208 per metric tonnes to 3000 improve the livelihood of farmers. But Fiifi Kwetey maintained the demands by the Kwadaso MP is cheap, arguing that the amount being paid by government is far beyond what the NPP paid when it was in power. "The farmers know exactly what has been happening in Ghana. They know exactly what is happening in the world. They know exactly the fact that over the years the effort of every government has been to pay a certain percentage of that world market price. They clearly know and have heard the global crisis. "…For any government, in the mist of all these difficulties, to still make an effort to pay 71 per cent of the world market price, clearly the farmers will know this is a good effort,” he argued. Story by Nathan Gadugah/Myjoyonline.con/Ghana