Ghana Cuts Cocoa Farmgate Price, Unveils Bond Plan to Support Struggling Sector

Ghana

In a bid to revive one of its most important agricultural industries, the government of Ghana announced on Friday that it would cut the price it pays cocoa farmers and introduce a new financing model designed to stabilize the embattled sector. The moves come amid a steep decline in global cocoa prices that has left many growers without buyers and unpaid for months.

Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson said at a press briefing that the farmgate price, the price paid to farmers at the point of delivery, would be reduced to 41,392 Ghanaian cedis (about $3,580) per metric ton for the remainder of the 2025–26 crop season. That represents a nearly 29 percent drop from the previous rate of 58,000 cedis, which officials said had made Ghana’s cocoa uncompetitive on international markets.

“We are aligning domestic prices with global realities,” Mr. Forson said, adding that without the adjustment Ghana could lose market share to rival producers as demand for cocoa continues to soften worldwide.

Ghana, long the world’s second-largest cocoa producer after Côte d’Ivoire, has struggled in recent months with falling prices and a backlog of unsold beans, leaving many farmers without income and unable to cover basic needs. A Reuters report this week described how thousands of deliveries remain unpaid, forcing some families to forgo essentials such as food and school fees while unsold stocks pile up at coastal ports.

To help ease chronic cash-flow issues in the sector, the government also unveiled a domestic cocoa bond financing scheme. Under the plan, the cocoa regulator will issue bonds to buy beans from farmers, with repayment to investors tied to the sale of cocoa within the same crop year. Officials said the model is intended to reduce reliance on expensive external borrowing and ensure farmers receive timely payments.

Mr. Forson said the cabinet has ordered immediate repayment of outstanding arrears owed to growers and plans to introduce legislation that would link future farmgate prices to international market benchmarks while guaranteeing farmers at least 70% of the gross Free on Board (FOB) price — the value of beans loaded for export.

In addition to pricing and financing reforms, the government reiterated its goal of boosting domestic value-addition in the cocoa value chain. Ghana currently processes between 30 and 40 percent of its cocoa beans locally, and Mr. Forson said authorities aim to raise that figure to at least 50% by the 2026–27 season, a shift that could create jobs and capture more of the commodity’s value before export.

The announcement comes against a backdrop of rising competition from other producers such as Ecuador, Indonesia and Nigeria, economies that have expanded cocoa output and could further challenge Ghana’s historic standing in the global market.