News:
August 6, 2021
The Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akoto Afriyie has indicated that currently there are no outstanding payments to be made to LBC across the country.
According to him, the delays in the payment to the LBC have been resolved, and payments have duly been honoured and no farmer is owed any money.
He explained that it has never been the case in the 48 years of cocoa purchase by the Cocobod that at the end of the season farmers or LBC are owed. However, there was a delay occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic which affected demands for cocoa beans and chocolate, and the usual sales contracts were adversely affected.
Answering question from Mr. Eric Afful, Member of Parliament for Amenfi West on the plans the Ministry has to reopen the 2021/2022 main crop season to purchase the abundance of cocoa beans which have been harvested by cocoa farmers in Ghana having regard to the exigencies of the season, the minister said the good harvest made by farmers as part of the 20/21 crop season would not be carried to 2021/2022 season, indicating that at the end of the 2020/2021 the country has made a record production of 982,864 metric tons and on a good not of no outstanding payment to be made by the Ghana Cocoa Board to the license buying companies (LBC).
He also disclosed that the new 2021/2022 cocoa season will commence on the first Friday of October 2021.
” The Ghana Cocoa Board is nearing the final stages of the ritual annual syndication process to secure funding for the 2021/2022 crop season” and assured that in due course, his ministry would engage the various stakeholders, mainly representatives of cocoa farmers, LBC, and the cocoa haulage companies to agree on producer price, buyers’ margin and haulage bricks.
He emphasized that that all these processes would be completed by end of September 2021 to usher in a new cocoa calendar year 2021/2022
Dominic Shirimori/Ghanamps.com