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Government must pay fair prices on
cocoa – Collins Dauda
Accra, July 9, Ghanadot/GNA - Alhaji
Collins Dauda, MP for Asutifi South, on Wednesday said
Government must consider the world market price of cocoa and
pay Ghanaian cocoa farmers fair prices for their produce.
He contended that unfair prices were a recipe for the recent
smuggling of cocoa beans to neighbouring countries, where
the prices tended to be more attractive.
He said that it was no good to wait till such negative
practices before Government came in to re-fix the prices.
Alhaji Dauda told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an Accra
that, when Ghana Government paid farmers 593 Ghana cedis for
a tonne of cocoa recently Cote d’Ivoire offered 760 Ghana
Cedis.
He accused Government of not paying the 70 per cent of the
gross freight on board, but rather made deductions against
the farmer in the name of procuring jute bags which were
rather sold locally and not exported as expected.
He said had the bags been exported, and the proceeds
accounted for, it would have improved the lot of Ghanaian
farmers.
The MP challenged Government and the Ghana COCOBOD to be
transparent in the disbursement of cocoa proceeds.
He criticized the mass cocoa spraying exercise, saying it
has been “politicized”, and alleged that a number of farmers
have had to defect from one party to another to have their
farms sprayed.
GNA
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