Ghana has lost more than a third of its 2023/24 cocoa output to smuggling, a top official from the cocoa marketing board (Cocobod) told Reuters, as low local prices and payment delays push some farmers to sell to increasingly sophisticated trafficking rings. Poor harvests in Ghana and Ivory Coast, the world’s second-largest and largest producers, have pushed markets into a four-year supply deficit, driving up global cocoa and chocolate prices this year. But cocoa fetches more in Ivory Coast and Togo than in Ghana because of a more stable CFA franc currency and a less regulated sector.Ghana had produced 429,323 metric tons of cocoa by the end of June from the start of the season in September, less than 55% of the average at the same point in previous seasons and putting 2023/24 output on track for its biggest fall in more than two decades. Charles Amenyaglo, director of special services at Cocobod, who leads the board’s anti-smuggling task force, said smuggling losses more than tripled in 2023/24.While more than 10 people have been sentenced to between three months and 10 years in prison for smuggling this year, Amenyaglo said Ghana’s military will soon be deployed to tackle smugglers. Smuggling rings, which offer farmers higher prices, began to take hold in 2022, when Ghana was at the height of an economic and currency crisis. Amenyaglo said significant quantities of cocoa were crossing into Togo, Burkina Faso and even Mali.
