{"id":33385,"date":"2026-04-30T12:40:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T10:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=33385"},"modified":"2026-04-30T12:41:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T10:41:00","slug":"ghana-cocoa-buyers-divert-funds-to-purchase-smuggled-beans-regulator","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/ghana-cocoa-buyers-divert-funds-to-purchase-smuggled-beans-regulator\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghana cocoa buyers divert funds to purchase smuggled beans: Regulator"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><span style=\"font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">Ghana&#8217;s cocoa regulator has accused some officials at licensed \u200cbuying companies of using government funds to buy cheap beans smuggled from the Ivory Coast, depriving local growers of income and threatening Ghana&#8217;s reputation for quality cocoa.<\/span><\/div>\n<div id=\"ms-outlook-mobile-signature\">\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Jake Kudjo Semahar, director of special services at the Ghana \u200bCocoa Board (COCOBOD), told <i>Reuters<\/i>\u00a0the practice had spread across four regions along the Ghana-Ivory \u200bCoast border, marking a reversal from earlier smuggling patterns, when Ghanaian beans were \u2060trafficked into Ivory Coast and Togo.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cWe were fighting smuggling of Ghana\u2019s cocoa to Ivory Coast, \u200bnow the reverse is the situation and we should be concerned,\u201d Semahar said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The practice is driven \u200bby a wide price gap. Ivory Coast is selling cocoa at the equivalent of 1 200 cedis ($107.33) per 64-kg bag, compared with Ghana\u2019s farmgate price of 2,587 cedis.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Semahar said some officers and clerks were exploiting the spread \u200bto generate illicit profits.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Licensed Cocoa Buyers Association of Ghana distanced member companies from direct responsibility.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>General \u200bSecretary Vitus Dzah told <i>Reuters<\/i>\u00a0no licensed buying company would sanction such purchases, blaming individual purchasing clerks acting \u200cout \u2060of personal greed.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cThey go to the extent of giving money to middlemen who go inside Ivory Coast and buy the cocoa for them,\u201d he said, adding that LBCs had suffered heavy losses from a similar episode in the 2004\/2005 season.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The allegations deepen concerns over a prolonged liquidity crisis that \u200bhas plagued Ghana&#8217;s cocoa \u200bsector for months, \u2060leaving farmers unpaid for beans delivered since November 2025.<\/div>\n<div>\u201cApart from denying farmers their income, Ghana is effectively subsidising producers in Ivory Coast,\u201d Semahar said, \u200bwarning that blending foreign beans with Ghanaian supplies risked eroding the premium \u200bquality status \u2060that gives the country\u2019s cocoa its global market advantage.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>COCOBOD\u2019s anti-smuggling unit last week arrested four suspects and impounded over 100 bags of Ivorian cocoa in Nkrankwanta in the Dormaa West District, an operation \u2060Semahar described \u200bas the start of a broader crackdown.<br \/>\nThe board said \u200bit had opened investigations into the matter and that sanctions would follow if involvement by LBCs was confirmed at the \u200binstitutional level.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":22668,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-33385","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/33385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/33385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33387,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/33385\/revisions\/33387"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=33385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}