Ghana has raised cocoa prices for the 2010/11 season by 33.33 percent in an effort to stop smuggling and motivate farmers to produce more in the coming season.
Prices for the 2010-11 season set to begin on Oct. 1 will be 3,200 cedis ($2,238) per tonne, up from 2,400 cedis per tonne during the 2009-10 season, Finance Minister Kwabena Duffuor said at a news conference in Accra.
As at September 24, figures for purchases for the 2009/10 season stood at 632,024 tonnes.
The world’s no.2 cocoa producer has set an ambitious target of producing 1 million tonnes of cocoa per year by 2012.
The Finance Minister said to further reward the hardworking farmers, Government had directed the Ghana Cocoa Board to work out and pay bonuses to farmers on the 2009/2010 main crop and ensure that the payment of the bonus is effected before December 2010.
(By Michael Sarpong Bruce, from Accra)