A secretly filmed documentary aired on Joy News showing how cocoa farmers have been cheated for a long time has provoked an uproar in Kuapa Kokoo with some farmers of the cooperative union demanding an end to corrupt practices in the organisation.
The documentary, which was aired on August 3 and 4, 2020, showed how some licensed cocoa buyers have been illegally adjusting their weighing scales to steal 5 to 11 kilos of cocoa on each bag of cocoa weighed.
The standard weight of cocoa per bag is 64 kilos. However, some licensed cocoa buyers through their own doings, have illegally adjusted their weighing scales for each bag of cocoa to now weigh 69 to 75 kilos.
The difference, according to the Chairman of the Jomoro Cocoa Farmers Association, represent 30 per cent loss of profit per each bag of cocoa weighed.
“We are working for no profit. All our profits go away. We are discouraged because we don’t even know who to talk to. COCOBOD too is not helping us”, he noted.
Stephen Nyarko, a cocoa farmer, commenting on the issue said the adjustment of the weighing scale is worrying and therefore wants the Ghana Standards Authority to move in and check all the weighing scales the licensed cocoa buyers are using.
“We want accurate and standard scales,” he stressed.
Some cocoa farmers, who are members of the Kuapa Kokoo Farmers Cooperative Union (KKFU), say it is about time their leaders worked to nib the rot in the industry in the bud. They pleaded that their real names be withheld for fear of intimidation and possible suspension.
Madam Akua Nyarko (Not her real name), a cocoa farmer in Atwereboana in the Western Region, told a reporter in an interview that farmers are not only being cheated through the weighing scale by some licensed cocoa buyers but also through mismanagement and blatant stealing of their resources.
Another farmer, Kofi Nyamekye (not his real name) in the Twifo Nyinase Society in the Central Region also in an interview said rot in KKFU is becoming so horrendous, stressing that the farmers can no longer sit down and watch how their monies are being channeled into the pockets of individuals.
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