At the 5th Steering Committee Meeting in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, Hon. Bryan Acheampong, Ghana’s Minister of Food and Agriculture, took over as chairman of the Côte d’Ivoire-Ghana Cocoa Initiative (CIGCI).
The Ivorian Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Hon. Kobenan Kouassi Adjoumani, was replaced by the Minister of Food and Agriculture, who also serves as the Member of Parliament for the Abetifi Constituency.
Alassane Ouattara, the head of Ivory Coast, and Ghana’s president, Nana Akufo-Addo, came up with the Cote d’Ivoire-Ghana Cocoa Initiative (CIGCI) to put pressure on international buyers and trading houses to set a minimum floor price of $2,600 per tonne for cocoa beans produced in their respective countries.
Following meetings with representatives from cocoa purchasing companies, trade houses, chocolatiers, the World Cocoa Foundation, and the International Cocoa Organization, it was decided to implement a new trading mechanism for cocoa sold by both countries beginning in 2020–2021. The Living Income Differential (LID) will be set at US$400.00 per tonne.
In her new capacity, Dr. Acheampong will be responsible for overseeing the completion and transfer of the Initiative’s permanent headquarters in Accra, growing the bloc’s membership by including other African nations that produce cocoa, general CIGCI restructuring, and the implementation of the West African Standards for sustainability and cocoa traceability systems.
In March 2018, the Cote d’Ivoire-Ghana Cocoa Initiative (CIGCI) was established with the goal of raising farmer incomes and enhancing the financial well-being of cocoa farmers. The CIGCI is spearheading the development of the West Africa Standards for the certification and traceability of cocoa originating from the sub-region, in addition to maintaining local compliance with best practices.
Speaking about his new position, Hon. Bryan Acheampong, Minister of Food and Agriculture, pledged to use it to advance the causes of the two nations as well as the interests of cocoa growers in particular.
He declared that his role was vital and that it was intended to ensure that the aspirations of Ghanaian President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and President Alassane Ouattara of Cote d’Ivoire were fulfilled.
He assigned the participants the duty of ensuring that each person assumed their fair share of the responsibility for following the initiative’s guidelines, as this was the only way to achieve its objective.
In an effort to increase revenue and stop the smuggling of beans to neighboring countries, Ghana has increased the state-guaranteed cocoa price paid to its farmers by more than 63% while he served as agriculture minister.
For the new 2023/2024 season, which began in September 2023, farmers will receive 20,943 Ghana cedis ($1,837) per tonne as a result of the increment, up from 12,800 Ghana cedis in 2022.
