Ghana lost 160k tonnes of cocoa to smuggling in 2023/24 season

ACCRA, Sept 17 (Reuters): 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 tonnes of cocoa by the end of June from the start of the season in September, less than 55 per cent 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.

"Conservatively, I will say we lost 160,000 tonnes," he said, adding that the task force also intercepted about 250 tonnes, up from 17 tonnes in 2022/23.

"The data is alarming," said Abubakar Omae, general secretary of Ghana's cocoa and coffee farmers association.