Global cocoa price slump a wake-up call for Ghana – Mahama pushes local processing

President John Dramani Mahama has announced a strategic shift in Ghana’s cocoa sector, revealing plans to prioritise local processing as part of efforts to reduce reliance on raw bean exports and shield the industry from volatile global price fluctuations.

His comments follow a sharp decline in international cocoa prices, which forced the government to reduce the producer price from GH¢3,625 to GH¢2,587 per bag—an adjustment that has sparked concern among cocoa farmers and industry stakeholders.

Speaking during an engagement with the Ghanaian community in Philadelphia on Thursday, March 26, 2026, President Mahama described the recent downturn as a critical wake-up call for Ghana to rethink its long-standing cocoa export model. He stressed that despite nearly 70 years of independence, the country continues to export largely unprocessed cocoa beans, thereby missing out on significant value addition.

“It is because for almost seventy years after we gained independence, we’re still exporting raw beans to the world… what has happened in the international market should be a wake-up call for us,” he said.

Ghana is one of the world’s leading cocoa producers, yet much of the processing—such as chocolate manufacturing and other finished products—takes place abroad. This, Mahama noted, limits the country’s earnings and exposes it to global market shocks, where price volatility directly affects farmer incomes and national revenue.

To address these structural challenges, the President revealed that the government is working to reform the financing model of cocoa purchases. Traditionally, Ghana has relied on international commodity buyers and traders to pre-finance cocoa purchases, with harvested beans often used as collateral for these arrangements.

Under the proposed reforms, Ghana intends to mobilise its own financial resources to purchase cocoa directly from farmers. This approach, according to Mahama, will allow the country to retain greater control over its cocoa and determine how it is utilised and marketed.

“Now, we say we are going to raise the money ourselves and buy our own cocoa… if we raise our money and buy our cocoa, it is not collateral to anybody, and so we can decide what to do with it,” he explained.

A key pillar of this new strategy is to significantly increase local processing capacity. The President indicated that a substantial portion of Ghana’s cocoa output will be directed to domestic processing companies, enabling the country to export semi-finished and finished cocoa products rather than raw beans.

“We are saying that we are going to allocate the bulk of our cocoa to local processors to process that cocoa before we export it,” he added.

This shift is expected to create jobs, boost industrialisation, and increase foreign exchange earnings by capturing more value along the cocoa supply chain. It also aligns with broader efforts to strengthen economic resilience and reduce dependence on raw commodity exports.

Mahama’s remarks signal a potential turning point in Ghana’s cocoa policy, with a stronger focus on value addition, local industry growth, and economic sovereignty in one of the country’s most important sectors.