Some 16 Cocoa Farmers at Sefwi Adabokrom in the Western Region are threatening to boycott the licensed produce buyers of the Cocoa Marketing Board (COCOBOD) and sell their cocoa in Cote D’Ivoire this year because since 2007/2008 they have not been paid for some 140 bags they sold to a COCOBOD licensed buyer called West African Exchange Company (WEACO). But the sins as enumerated by the farmers go beyond just the debts owed by WEACO, because documents available to Adom News indicate that COCOBOD itself owes the farmers percentages of sums taken from WEACO as part of sanctions under the Internal Cocoa Marketing guidelines. The farmers sold a total of 540 bags to a COCOBOD licensee, WEACO in the 2007/2008 main crop season, but the company paid for only 400 bags at GHC75 per bag and had since not paid for the remaining 140 bags. Chief Cocoa Farmer in the area, Nana Appiah Danquah told Adom News the proprietor of WEACO, one Nana Agyemang Pimsan of Dampoase in the Ashanti Region, had since absconded and his phone lines are dead. He said one Kofi Yeboah Tawiah, who represented WEACO as the District Manager to deal with the 16 farmers had since been facing threats and court action in the area from farmers, but he has been doing his best to chase after the money from COCOBOD all to no avail. “Now we are at our wits end and if this year’s harvest season comes in October and we still do not have our money, we will go and sell our cocoa in Cote D’Ivoire where we are assured of upfront payment and even a better price,” he said. Documents available to Adom News indicate the WEACO boss has GHS 34,264, as outstanding debts to clear, consisting of GHS 28,000 for the actual producer price for 140 bags, and GHS 6,264 bonuses for the 2007/2008 main crop year. He said the matter had long been reported to COCOBOD, when Alhaji Dramani Egala was the Deputy CEO, Operations, and he ordered investigations, which found WEACO guilty of “Failure to pay the producer price for 140 bags”, and “non-payment of bonuses” under the categories A and B of the Internal Cocoa Marketing guidelines respectively. The sanction was for WEACO to pay the full producer price and bonuses for the 140 bags to the farmers for the season in question, pay two times the full producer price for the 140 bags to COCOBOD, and 10 times the bonuses on the 140 bags to COCOBOD and cease operations for the 2009/2010 season. According to sub-sections 3.2.1 under “Failure to pay producer prices”, and 3.2 under “Non-payment of bonuses” of COCOBOD’s Internal Marketing guideline, COCOBOD was supposed to pay 25 per cent of the money it deducted for failure to pay, and 50 per cent of the money it deducted for non-payment of bonuses to the farmers. In total, COCOBOD deducted GHS 105,000 from WEACO’s margins for failure to pay, and 25 per cent of that is GHS 26,250, which is meant for the farmers. It also deducted a total of GHS 62,640 for non-payment of bonuses, and 50 per cent of that was GHS 31,320, meant for the farmers. So COCOBOD was supposed to give the farmers at least GHS 57,570 from the deductions it made from WEACO’s margins as early as September 2009, but up till now the farmers have not received their moneys from WEACO and the COCOBOD has also failed to give them their share of the deductions it made. The farmers have over the past two years made several formal requests to COCOBOD and also sent personal representations to the COCOBOD head office in Accra for the money but to no avail. Documents available to Adom News indicate the matter had even gone to court, and to National Security at some point but the farmers remain unpaid till date. In a related development, some Cocoa Farmers in Sefwi Kaase are also waiting for their share of GHS 30,677.14 from deductions made from the WEACO margins by COCOBOD for defaulting in the payment of some 8,967 bags of cocoa in the 2006/2007 main season. Adom News contacted the current Deputy CEO in charge of operations at COCOBOD, Mr. Asante Poku and he admitted that the farmers had not been paid but COCOBOD can’t afford to pay them because WEACO owes COCOBOD too and its license has been withdrawn. “WEACO has defaulted in other cases and they owe us lots of money so if we pay the farmers it will be double loss to us,” he said.