Ghana lifts farmers' cocoa price in bid to deter smuggling

Ghana sharply raised the price it will pay cocoa farmers for the new 2014/15 season to 5,520 cedis ($1,720) per tonne in a bid to deter smuggling to Ivory Coast, authorities said on Thursday.

The rise represents a 63 percent increase on the 3,392 cedis price cocoa regulator Cocobod paid last season. It is also slightly higher than the price the world's top producer, Ivory Coast, announced this week that it would pay to its farmers for the new season.

Cocobod Chief Executive Stephen Opuni, said Ghana, the world's second biggest producer, will aim to produce more than 1 million tonnes in the season to begin on Friday, up from a forecast of 900,000 tonnes in the just-ended season.

In the past, cocoa farmers particularly in the west of the country have loaded their produce onto lorries to take over the border to secure higher prices but Opuni said better security and the higher prices would stop this practice.

Cocobod will pay farmers an additional 5 cedis per 64 kg-bag of cocoa this season as a bonus on top of the season's price, which works out at 345 cedis per bag, he said.