The Ghana Cocoa Board is a Ghanaian government-controlled institution that fixes the buying price for cocoa in Ghana. Farmers are protected from the volatile prices on the world market through the price-fixing. Besides the higher quality hybrid seeds are sold by the organization and some research on cocoa plant-related diseases are also carried out. Between 1947 and 1979, the institution was known as the Cocoa Marketing Board.
History
Background
In 1937, farmers in Gold Coast, a colony of the British Empireequal to contemporary Ghana, refused to continue selling cocoa at the low prices set by European merchants and decided to withhold cocoa from the market. The strike went on for 8 months, until the British government acted by setting up the Nowell Commission of Enquiry to investigate the issue. The Nowell Commission report advised the government to assist cocoa farmers by establishing a Marketing Board.
In 1940, the government established the West African Produce Control Board to purchase cocoa under guaranteed prices from all West African countries. It operated throughout World War II and was dissolved in 1946.
Cocoa Marketing Board (1947-1979)
The first attempt to regulate market value and production was in 1947 through the Ghana Marketing Board, which dissolved in 1979 and was reconciled into Ghana Cocoa Board also called Cocobod. The Ghana Marketing Board was established by ordinance in 1947 with the sum of 27 million Ghanaian Cedi as its initial working capital. In 1979, this Board was dissolved and reconstituted as the Ghana Cocoa Board.
Ghana Cocoa Board (1979-)
In 1984 Cocobod underwent institutional reform aimed at subjecting the cocoa sector to market forces. Cocobod's role was reduced, and 40 percent of its staff, or at least 35,000 employees, were dismissed. Furthermore, the government shifted responsibility for crop transport to the private sector. Subsidies for production inputs were removed, and there was a measure of privatization of the processing sector through at least one joint venture. In addition, a new payment system known as the Akuafo Check System was introduced in 1982 at the point of purchase of dried beans. Ghana's Government implemented a very strategic plan in 1984 putting the sale of agriculture particularly Cocoa in the hands of the Government. With the regulation of pricing and manufacturing controlled by the government over 30,000+ jobs were lost but Ghana still holds its spot as one of three highest yielding countries of Cocoa. Jointly with Côte d'Ivoire's Coffee and Cocoa Council, agreed and announced, on June 11, 2019, a minimal price for cocoa, in order to protect producers.
In September 2019, COCOBOD was given a directive by the government of Ghana to buy fertilizers from local manufacturers from 2020. Due to the government's One-district One-factory venture, the local fertilizer production firms had the requisite capacity the demand of the country.
