Ghana will delay the delivery of 370,000 tons of cocoa beans due to the lowest harvest in the last 20 years. The candidate for the post of Minister of Agriculture of the country, Eric Opoku, announced this at parliamentary hearings.
According to him, in the agricultural year 2023/24, Ghana harvested less than 550,000 tons of cocoa beans and will not be able to fulfill all its obligations to deliver them to the world market on time. At the same time, the amount of delayed deliveries will amount to 370,000 tons, which is 20,000 tons more than previously forecast.
Last year's crop failure in Ghana was caused by both adverse weather and a widespread disease of cocoa bean-producing trees. On average, Ghana has produced 800,000 tons of cocoa beans annually in recent decades. The difficulties caused the country's cocoa exporter, the Cocoa Marketing Board, to default on an $800 million loan from international financial institutions.
Ghana is the world's second largest producer of cocoa beans after Côte d'Ivoire, with a 30% share of the world market. This will seriously change the price of cocoa on world markets. Later this year, we will also witness an increase in the price of chocolate and chocolate products, as manufacturers will not be able to compensate for the increased cost of the main raw material.