The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has disclosed that it is still obligated to service about 98,000 metric tonnes of cocoa under rollover contracts as efforts continue to resolve challenges stemming from delivery shortfalls in previous seasons.
The revelation was made by COCOBOD’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Randy Abbey, during a media engagement, where he provided updates on ongoing discussions aimed at addressing the situation.
“We are dealing with rollover contracts, and we have about 98,000 tonnes to service. As I have indicated, COCOBOD, the Ministry of Finance, and the government are in discussions to find solutions to these issues, and we will communicate the outcomes very soon,” Dr. Abbey stated.
He explained that the rollover arrangements largely resulted from COCOBOD’s inability to fully meet its contractual delivery obligations during the 2023/2024 cocoa season.
According to Dr. Abbey, COCOBOD failed to deliver 333,767 metric tonnes of cocoa despite having already entered into sales contracts at a price of $2,600 per tonne. He noted that the decision continues to have significant and far-reaching consequences for the cocoa sector.
Dr. Abbey also dismissed claims that COCOBOD had defaulted on repayments of syndicated loans, clarifying that the defaults related strictly to cocoa delivery contracts and not loan obligations.
“I have never said anywhere that COCOBOD defaulted on syndicated loan repayments,” he stressed. “What I have consistently said is that COCOBOD defaulted on contracts it signed by failing to deliver 333,767 tonnes of cocoa that had been sold at $2,600 per tonne.”
He added that the fallout from those contracts has severely limited the country’s ability to benefit from the recent surge in global cocoa prices.
“We are still reeling from that decision. When cocoa prices rose to $10,000, $11,000, and even $12,000 per tonne, neither the Ghanaian cocoa farmer nor COCOBOD could benefit fully,” Dr. Abbey explained.
“Instead, we were forced to use high-priced cocoa to service contracts priced at $2,600 per tonne. Not only did we fail to benefit from the price increase, but we also incurred additional debts in the process,” he said.