Former President John Mahama, also the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has expressed his dissatisfaction with President Akufo-Addo's recent announcement of a GH¢1,308 producer price per bag of cocoa.

He characterized this decision as detrimental to hardworking cocoa farmers.

At an event in Tepa on September 9, President Akufo-Addo acknowledged the challenges faced by cocoa farmers, including the impact of low international cocoa prices, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite these difficulties, he revealed that COCOBOD and the government had chosen to increase the producer price of cocoa.

The President explained that cocoa prices had risen significantly from GH¢7,600 per tonne in 2016 to GH¢12,800 per tonne in 2022, representing a substantial 68% increase.

Moreover, the government had further elevated cocoa prices from GH¢12,800 per tonne to GH¢20,943 per tonne, equivalent to GH¢1,308 per bag. This new price corresponds to 70.5% of the Gross FoB price and is equivalent to $1,821 per tonne, marking the highest price paid to cocoa farmers in West Africa in nearly half a century.

However, in a Facebook post on Monday, September 11, John Mahama argued that given the international market price of cocoa, which reached a 46-year record high of $3,600, the government should have provided cocoa farmers with a more equitable share of the international FOB price.

He expressed his disappointment that the government opted to offer farmers only GH¢1,308 per bag, amounting to just 52.7% of the FOB Price on the international market.

"The government's just-announced increase in the farm-gate price of cocoa is a rip-off of our hardworking cocoa farmers and their families who continue to sustain our economy through their toil.

"With the international market price surging to a 46-year record high of $3,600, the government should have given our cocoa farmers their fair share of the international FOB price.

"Sadly, the government has chosen to give them a paltry GH₵1,308 per bag, constituting only 52.7% of the FOB Price of the product on the international market.

"This is unfair to our cocoa farmers, who have been worse off since the NPP took over the reins of government in 2017.

"In 2016, my government, in addition to the free fertiliser and free cocoa seedlings programme, gave cocoa farmers 66.06% of the FOB Price of cocoa.

"This NPP administration should have built on this foundation. They have rather increased the operational expenses of COCOBOD and reduced the international FOB share for the farmers. Cocoa farmers certainly deserve better!" he wrote.