COCOBOD has started engaging several banks outside the country to possibly secure some $1.5 billion in loans for the next crop season.
The funds are expected to help the COCOBOD finance purchases of cocoa beans for the 2019/2020 crop season.
According to the Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD, Joseph Boahen Aidoo, “Initially we are expecting $1.3 million and then with $200 million to make it $1.5 million. We need to tread cautiously even though our production have gone above 900,000 metric tonnes, we [still] tread cautiously because of the fall in the price of cocoa.
This is because when the price of cocoa is falling you need larger volumes of cocoa to collateralize”
COCOBOD last year raised about $1.3 billion for the purchases of about 900 million metric tonnes of cocoa beans for the crop season.
The cocoa sector accounts for 4.5 per cent of GDP and contributes 25 per cent of Ghana’s merchandise export earnings.
Meanwhile, ahead of the roadshow, Stakeholders in the cocoa industry have agreed to purchase a tonne of cocoa from Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire at $2,600 and such a development has the ability to help the COCOBOD secure the $1.5 billion in loan for the next crop season.
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This follows an intensive two-day stakeholder engagement which hitherto ended in a snag on the first day.
With 65% of global production, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire are co-operating to tackle common challenges in the production and marketing of cocoa, and to create a conducive platform for effective engagement with traders, processors, manufacturers, and retailers on all relevant issues of mutual interest, including farmers’ income.
