Omanghana
About 400 cocoa farmers in the Volta and Oti regions have appealed to the government and the Ghana Cocoa Board to intervene over payments they say have remained outstanding since November 2025.
The farmers claim they supplied cocoa beans to licensed buyers during the 2025/26 crop season but have yet to receive the money owed to them.
They identified the state-owned Produce Buying Company and private licensed buyer Atlas Cocoa as the companies involved in the disputed transactions.
The affected farmers say the prolonged delay has created severe financial hardship and weakened their confidence in Ghana’s official cocoa-purchasing system.
Farmers Explain How Dispute Began
Emmanuel Acquah, a cocoa farmer representative at Akpafu-Odomi in the Guan District, said farmers initially supplied their produce to PBC.
According to him, PBC subsequently stopped purchasing cocoa during the season, creating uncertainty for farmers who needed to sell their harvested beans.
Atlas Cocoa then reportedly stepped in to purchase the produce, using government-owned weighing scales and warehouses associated with PBC.
Acquah alleged that PBC later took custody of the cocoa stored in the facilities, complicating the process of determining which company was responsible for paying the farmers.
The resulting administrative dispute has allegedly left the farmers without their money despite having already surrendered their produce.
The farmers maintain that they should not be made to bear the financial consequences of disagreements between licensed buyers or state institutions.
Management representatives of COCOBOD, PBC and Atlas reportedly held discussions about a payment arrangement, raising expectations that the matter would be resolved.
The farmers said they were therefore surprised when subsequent public statements suggested that all outstanding cocoa payments across the country had been cleared.
Farmers Challenge Claims That All Arrears Were Paid
Acquah disputed claims attributed to the Concerned Cocoa Farmers Association of Ghana that every cocoa farmer in the country had received payment.
“We are still waiting for our money,” he said.
“We cannot tolerate any misinformation about our situation. Cocoa farming is our main source of livelihood, and the delay in payment has brought untold hardship to us.”
The farmers said broad declarations that all arrears had been settled did not reflect conditions in their communities.
They are calling for their cases to be examined individually and for authorities to establish why they were excluded from any payments released to licensed buying companies.
Earlier reports confirmed that payment delays had affected thousands of Ghanaian cocoa farmers following deliveries made from November 2025. PBC was reported in May to owe growers about GH¢24 million for more than 9,000 bags already delivered. Reuters
Families Struggle With School and Medical Expenses
The affected farmers said the delay had disrupted their ability to meet essential household expenses.
Some parents have reportedly struggled to pay school and university fees, while others cannot settle medical bills or provide adequately for their families.
Farm maintenance has also been affected because farmers lack money to hire laborer’s, purchase inputs or manage their fields ahead of subsequent harvests.
Cocoa production requires regular spending on pruning, spraying, harvesting, fermentation and drying. When farmers are not paid promptly, those activities can be delayed, potentially reducing future production and threatening household incomes.
Acquah also reported that two chief cocoa farmers died after enduring prolonged financial pressure and hearing announcements that all arrears had been paid.
The alleged connection between their deaths and the payment dispute has not been independently established. It remains an account provided by the local farmers’ representative.
Payment Delays Could Encourage Unofficial Sales
Lead farmer Nicholas Fato warned that repeated delays could push producers away from authorized purchasing channels.
He said farmers who urgently need cash may turn to unofficial middlemen who are prepared to pay immediately, even if doing so falls outside established purchasing arrangements.
The Volta and Oti regions are particularly vulnerable to cross-border cocoa smuggling because of their proximity to Togo.
Farmers have cautioned that confidence in the official system will continue to decline if licensed buyers accept cocoa beans but fail to pay within a reasonable period.
Such a loss of confidence could undermine national efforts to improve traceability, monitor production and prevent beans from leaving Ghana through unauthorised routes.
Fato therefore called for urgent intervention to pay the farmers and restore trust between producers, licensed buying companies and COCOBOD.
Farmers Report Matter to Police
The farmers said they had reported the matter to the Ghana Police Service and requested an investigation into why their payments remained outstanding.
They want investigators to establish who took custody of the cocoa, whether money was released for the beans and which institution is currently responsible for settling the debt.
According to Acquah, the farmers had not received feedback on the complaint at the time of their latest appeal.
They have resolved to organize peaceful demonstrations within their communities if the issue is not addressed.
Should those protests fail to produce a resolution, the farmers say they will travel to Accra and march to Parliament to demand intervention from lawmakers.
The approximately 400 affected producers are asking COCOBOD, PBC, Atlas Cocoa and the government to reconcile their records, identify the outstanding transactions and release the money owed to them.
Neither COCOBOD, PBC nor Atlas Cocoa was reported to have issued a detailed public response to the farmers’ latest allegations.
Source: Omanghana
