• Ghana has 50,000 tonnes unsold cocoa at ports
• Cocoa prices fell from $13,000 to around $4,000
• Traders face liquidity crunch; 300,000 tonnes need funding

In West Africa’s cocoa belt, the crisis is deepening. After Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana said last week that 50,000 tonnes of unsold cocoa beans have piled up at its ports. The Ghana Cocoa Board (Cocobod) said the country has sold 530,000 tonnes since the start of the 2025/2026 season.

“We’re having very serious discussions. The government takes this matter extremely seriously and wants to resolve the issues as soon as possible,” Cocobod Chief Executive Ransford Abbey said at a press conference in Accra last Friday.

In Ghana, as in neighbouring Côte d’Ivoire, the state-controlled cocoa marketing system has come under strain from collapsing prices. After trading near $13,000 per tonne on the New York exchange in December 2024, prices fell to between $5,000 and $6,000 a year later. Since the start of this month, they have hovered around $4,000.

These conditions, combined with a historically high farmgate price of 58,000 cedis per tonne ($5,281), have pushed traders into a liquidity crunch, leading to a build-up of unsold beans.

In Côte d’Ivoire, the government said on January 20 it would buy 123,000 tonnes of unsold cocoa from production zones for 280 billion CFA francs ($508 million). Will Ghana follow suit? Licensed Buying Companies (LBCs) are urging authorities to act.

According to Reuters, companies estimate urgent funding is needed to purchase 300,000 tonnes of beans. This figure includes stocks at ports, beans that have not yet been paid for and remain stored inland by LBCs, stocks still held by farmers, and additional volumes expected from the mid-crop harvest between March and August.

Espoir Olodo