The National Communications Officer for the opposition National Democratic Congress, Sammy Gyamfi Esq. has chastised the Chief Executive Officer of Ghana COCOBOD, Joseph Boahen Aidoo for lying about the fact of the farm-gate price for the 2023/24 Cocoa Season.

According to the Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress, the Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD, Joseph Boahen Aidoo deliberately lied in challenging the figure the Minority Caucus in Parliament stated as the farm-gate price for the 2023/24 cocoa season.

“I just sighted the self-serving “voodoo mathematics” you have posted on your Facebook wall (attached herewith) which seeks to pooh-pooh the 2023/24 cocoa price calculation analysis that Hon. Eric Opoku and Hon. Dr. Ato Forson have put out. I wish to submit to you that, you are the one who needs to go back to the classroom and learn basic reading and arithmetic’s”.
Sammy Gyamfi Esq.

Because if you knew how to read, you would have realized that Dr. Ato Forson in arriving at the gross international FOB price of GHS3, 100 per bag contained in paragraph 9 of his press statement dated 15th September, 2023 (not the GH2, 800 you have erroneously quoted in your post) added premium of $497 per tonne and Living Income Differential (LID) of $400 per tonne to the average international gross FOB price of $3,600”.

Minority Leader Right About His Claims

Mr. Sammy Gyamfi also noted that when you divide GHS49, 601.91 by 16 you get a gross FOB price of GHS3, 100 per bag of cocoa which was the figure Hon. Dr. Ato Forson put out.

He, therefore, emphasized that it is sheer wickedness and naked thievery for President Akuffo and COCOBOD to have given the poor cocoa farmer a paltry GHS1,308 out of this amount while pocketing a whopping GHS1,800.

“For your information, the gross FOB price per bag of GHS2, 500 mentioned by Hon. Eric Opoku at our cocoa farmers’ conference at Dadiesoaba excluded premium of $497 and LID of $400 per tonne. He indicated so in his speech. Also, the price of GHS2,800 mentioned by Dr. Ato Forson at the same event included a premium but excluded LID of $400. That is also very clear from his speech at the said event”.
Sammy Gyamfi Esq.

According to Mr. Sammy Gyamfi, the comprehensive price analysis for the 2023/24 cocoa season is exactly what Dr. Ato Forson, the Minority Leader in his press statement dated 15th September 2023.

He therefore called on the Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD, Joseph Boahen Aidoo to respond to the data the Minority Caucus in Parliament and the National Democratic Congress has put forward and stop misleading his gullible NPP followers.

“The contradiction you are strenuously trying to point out is only a figment of your imagination and nothing more”.
Sammy Gyamfi Esq.

Mr. Sammy Gyamfi also chastised the Chief Executive Officer of COCBOD to resign immediately for collapsing COCOBOD due to his gross incompetence.

The Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD, Joseph Bohen Aidoo in responding to the Minority Leader press release dated 15^th September indicated that the Minority Leader, Dr. Ato Forson and Eric Opoku exhibited inconsistencies on the farm-gate price for cocoa farmers using the spot price of $3600 as the determinant for producer price.

He indicated that a reverse calculation of the Minority Leader, Dr. Ato Forson’s figure of GHS 2800 would rather give a spot price of $4072 rather than $3600. He also added that aside from the price COCOBOD give to cocoa farmers, it also incurs industry cost.