COCOBOD to offer cash prizes to eradicate cocoa smuggling

The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has announced plans to offer cash prizes to persons who volunteer information for the arrest of individuals involved in the smuggling of cocoa.

This forms part of its key strategies to deal with the prevalence of the menace after 150,000 metric tonnes of cocoa were smuggled out of the country in 2022 alone.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Citi Business News, the Head of Public Affairs at COCOBOD, Stephen Fiifi Boafo efforts will be intensified to eradicate cocoa smuggling in Ghana to save the industry.

“The first step in checking the smuggling is announcing a prize that will make it less attractive for anyone who wishes to smuggle cocoa out of our country. The other is also to implement fully and a revised form, a catch and share arrangement where people who give information on smuggling that leads to an arrest will be given a larger share of value of that cocoa being smuggled. These are parts of the arrangements we have.”

The commitment comes after government increased the new farm gate price for a bag of cocoa to GHC 1,308 and with a ton going for GHC 20, 943.

According to COCOBOD, its resolve to implement stringent mechanisms to deal with cocoa smuggling is because the large metric tonnes of cocoa smuggled out of the country was due to the instability of the cedi against the currencies of some neighbouring countries.

But with this new development, government remains committed to fight the canker in spite of the new farm gate pricing to curb cocoa smuggling.

Source: Citi Business News