Cocoa prices may not be increased next year – COCOBOD CEO

The Chief Executive Officer  of COCOBOD Joseph Boahen Aidoo has predicted that the country’s cocoa sector will be facing serious challenges next year.
The impending difficulty, he explained, is attributable to the continuous drop of the commodity on the world market.
As a result, he said, the producer price for cocoa farmers for the next crop season may not be increased.
The development could also affect government’s quest to attain its one million metric tonnes target for the 2017 /2018 crop season.
Mr. Boahen Aidoo made this known over the weekend whilst addressing farmers and stakeholders in the Ashanti region.
“The price that we all know has been GHS7, 600 per tonne. Now this was pegged on the basis that the international price was averaged at $2,900, as we speak today the price volatility is running between 2000, 100 and then 1,800 dollars. So we have averaged it at 1,900 dollars per tonne,” he said adding, “now you realized that about $100 has been lost.”
Meanwhile, the board chairman of COCOBOD   Hackman Owusu Agyeman has revealed that the firm is working on cutting operational costs to reflect its new transformational agenda.
The move, he said, will be aimed at tackling “the deficit that we have as an organization.”
He also expressed the believe that the fortunes of the organization will be turned around to live up to expectation.