• Ghana plans to allocate 200,000 hectares for new industrial cocoa plantations under Cocobod.

• The effort aims to offset productivity losses caused by illegal mining, aging trees, and plant disease.

• Cocoa production dropped 31% since 2019/2020; the government targets a 1 million-ton output.

Ghana’s cocoa production has faced ongoing fluctuations, largely due to illegal mining, aging trees, and viral plant diseases. In a bid to revive the sector, the government has announced plans to acquire 200,000 hectares of agricultural land on behalf of the Ghana Cocoa Board (Cocobod) to establish new industrial plantations.

The initiative was unveiled on May 16, 2025, by Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson during the inauguration of Cocobod’s new board of directors. Forson said the project would allow Cocobod to establish large-scale plantations to supplement smallholder activities and support long-term growth in cocoa output.

Forson said the initiative would complement existing smallholder farmer operations and ensure sustainable growth in the sector. Although implementation details remain undisclosed, the announcement has been welcomed by stakeholders in a sector long constrained by structural issues. According to Cocobod, roughly 500,000 hectares of cocoa orchards are currently unproductive due to illegal mining operations (locally known as galamsey), aging trees, and the spread of Swollen Shoot viral disease.

The planned 200,000 hectares of new plantations could help reverse the trend. Data from the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) show that Ghana’s cocoa production declined by 31%, from 771,000 tons in 2019/2020 to 530,000 tons in 2023/2024.

However, the impact of new plantations will not be immediate. Cocoa trees typically take three to five years to produce their first pods, with peak yields only achieved from the sixth or seventh year.

In his May 16 speech, Forson reiterated the government’s goal of raising cocoa production to 1 million tons annually; a symbolic benchmark reached only twice in the past 15 years, during the 2010/2011 and 2020/2021 seasons, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

If successful, the expansion of Ghana’s national orchard could help it reclaim lost ground in the global cocoa market and narrow the gap with Côte d’Ivoire, the world’s top cocoa producer. While Ghana’s output has fluctuated, Côte d’Ivoire has maintained an average of 2.1 million tons between 2019/2020 and 2022/2023, ICCO data show.