Ghana has raised the farmgate cocoa price for the 2025/26 season by 12.27 percent, bringing it to GHS3,625 per bag or GHS58,000 per tonne, effective from Friday, October 3, 2025. The move represents the second price increase this year and comes as neighbouring Ivory Coast raised its own farmgate price just a day earlier.
Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson announced the new price at a press briefing in Accra on Thursday, noting that cocoa farmers would now receive an additional GHS400 per 64-kilogram bag compared to the GHS3,228.75 announced in August. The August price had been set using projected world cocoa prices and an assumed exchange rate, but subsequent market changes prompted the government to review the producer price again.
The timing isn’t coincidental. Ivory Coast, the world’s top cocoa producer, increased its farmgate price to a record 2,800 CFA francs per kilogram on Wednesday, and Ghana’s adjustment appears designed to maintain competitiveness. Forson acknowledged the regional dynamics directly, stating that Ghana was now competitive following Ivory Coast’s announcement.
This pricing competition reflects deeper anxieties about smuggling, which has become a significant drain on Ghana’s cocoa sector. Officials at the Ghana Cocoa Board estimate that Ghana lost approximately 160,000 tons of cocoa to illegal cross-border trade in the 2023/24 season. More broadly, illegal cocoa exports to Ivory Coast and Togo cost Ghana about $1.1 billion between the 2021/22 and 2024/25 seasons, with 473,253 tons smuggled during that period.
The smuggling problem stems largely from price differentials. When neighboring countries offer better rates, farmers near porous borders face powerful incentives to sell their cocoa across those borders rather than through official channels. Ghana shares extensive, difficult-to-monitor boundaries with both Ivory Coast and Togo, making enforcement challenging despite dedicated anti-smuggling task forces.
The human dimension matters here. Farmers aren’t smuggling out of criminal intent but economic necessity. Many face delayed payments through official channels, rising production costs, and currency depreciation that erodes the real value of their earnings. When smugglers offer immediate cash at higher rates, the choice becomes less about ethics and more about survival.
The decision to raise prices came after a meeting of the Producer Price Review Committee on Cocoa, chaired by Dr. Forson, following extensive consultations with stakeholders. The government has stressed that margins, fees, and rates for other stakeholders, including COCOBOD, will remain unchanged despite the increase for farmers.
Beyond pricing adjustments, the government is continuing support programs designed to improve production and farmer welfare. COCOBOD is set to intensify the supply of critical farming inputs provided for free, including liquid and granular fertilizers, insecticides, spraying machines, fungicides, and flower inducers. There’s also a longer-term commitment to farmer welfare through education.
The Finance Minister disclosed that COCOBOD is preparing to launch a Tertiary Education Scholarship Scheme for children of cocoa farmers in the 2026/27 academic year. This represents an attempt to address not just immediate income concerns but the broader economic prospects of cocoa-farming communities, where educational opportunities have historically been limited.
The August price had initially disappointed many farmers who felt it fell short of government promises. More than 300,000 farmers expressed anger over what they considered inadequate compensation, with some threatening to smuggle their entire harvest to Ivory Coast if they lived near the border. The October adjustment appears partly responsive to that discontent.
Whether this new price will effectively curb smuggling remains uncertain. The fundamental challenge persists because pricing decisions by Ghana and Ivory Coast aren’t coordinated, despite both countries accounting for more than 60 percent of global cocoa production. Ghana and Ivory Coast have been facing their worst harvests in decades due to factors including dry weather and black pod disease.
These production challenges have helped send global cocoa prices to record highs, yet neither country has fully captured the benefits of those elevated prices. Smuggling diverts beans away from official export channels, reducing government revenue and complicating efforts to stabilize the industry.
There’s also the question of enforcement capacity. Well-organized smuggling networks exploit porous borders, particularly in Ghana’s Western North, Western South, Volta, and Brong Ahafo regions, identified as key smuggling corridors. While Ghana has anti-smuggling task forces, including military involvement, the scale of the problem suggests current measures haven’t been sufficient.
The broader context includes Ghana’s economic struggles, which compound pressures on farmers. Currency depreciation makes imported inputs more expensive while potentially making smuggling more attractive when payments come in stronger foreign currencies. Inflation drives up production costs faster than official price adjustments can compensate.
Agriculture Minister Eric Opoku expressed confidence that smuggling is no longer a problem because prices are now competitive. But competitiveness is relative and temporary. If Ivory Coast adjusts its prices again, or if currency movements shift the calculus, smuggling incentives could quickly resurface.
What’s missing is regional coordination on pricing policy. Ghana and Ivory Coast together dominate global cocoa production but operate as competitors rather than collaborators when it comes to farmgate prices. This creates opportunities for arbitrage that sophisticated smuggling networks exploit, while farmers get caught between official policies and economic survival.
The October price increase represents a step toward addressing farmer concerns and reducing smuggling incentives. But without sustained attention to enforcement, currency stability, payment reliability, and ultimately regional price coordination, the fundamental dynamics driving cocoa smuggling will likely persist. The question isn’t whether this price adjustment helps but whether it helps enough, and for how long.
