Agents of La Cote D’Ivoire have besieged the Sefwi area in the Brong Ahafo Region and are allegedly buying cocoa at prices higher than the government's approved price, says Ex-Health Minister under the Kufuor administration Dr. Kweku Afriyie. According to him, the agents are buying the cocoa at GH¢170.00 per bag, higher than the GH¢138.00 government announced on Wednesday. Government’s GH¢138.00 was a 35.29 percentage increase from the previous peg and was in line with increases of the world market price for the commodity. But Dr. Afriyie maintained that the new price is woefully inadequate and has fuelled the continued smuggling of the commodity. In an interview with Joy News, the ex-Health Minister admitted government was not buying the product on spot prices but explained government could still peg the prices closer to those of the neighbouring countries to check smuggling. “The greater the disparity the more the smuggling goes on,” he said. Some cocoa farmers were equally unimpressed with the new producer price and have threatened to smuggle the product out to neighbouring Cote D’Ivoire. A cocoa farmer named only as Janet at Yawmetwa, a border town in the Western Region told Joy News the new price will do little to discourage smuggling. She said the price could well have been fixed at GH¢150.00 which is still lower than the price in Cote D’Ivoire, but reckoned it would ease the tendency for smuggling. Asked if she was aware that smuggling was illegal, the cocoa farmer said it made economic sense given how profit oriented people desired to sell in markets where prices were more competitive. She said while doctors, teachers and other professionals had the right to embark on strikes to press home demands for salary increases, farmers have none, and the only alternative perhaps was to smuggle. She did not understand why La Cote D’Ivoire will be selling the same commodity higher than Ghana when both countries were operating under the same world market prices. Play the attached audio for excerpts of the interview with Dr Afriyie and madam Janet. Story by Nathan Gadugah/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana