Minority rejects cocoa cut price, calls for Randy Abbey’s dismissal

The Minority in Parliament has launched a fierce political offensive against the Mahama administration over the controversial cut in the cocoa producer price, accusing the government of betraying cocoa farmers, reversing key campaign promises, and mismanaging the country’s most strategic agricultural sector.

The caucus has further escalated the crisis by formally calling for the dismissal of COCOBOD Chief Executive Officer, Randy Abbey, whom they accuse of presiding over a deepening institutional and financial collapse within the cocoa industry.

The backlash follows the government’s decision to reduce the cocoa producer price to GH¢2,587 per 64kg bag, down from GH¢3,625, representing a cut of over GH¢1,000 per bag.

In tonnage terms, the official producer price was reduced from GH¢51,660 per tonne to GH¢41,392 per tonne for the remainder of the 2025/2026 cocoa season.

The Minority describes the move as one of the most severe price reductions in the cocoa history and an unprecedented policy shift that places the burden of sectoral instability squarely on farmers.

Addressing a press conference in Accra, the Ranking Member on Parliament’s Food, Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs Committee, Dr. Isaac Yaw Opoku, said the decision represents a historic injustice against cocoa farmers who have sustained the Ghanaian economy for decades.

He argued that while farmers remain the backbone of the cocoa value chain, they continue to suffer the consequences of institutional failures, financial mismanagement, and policy miscalculations at the top of the sector.

“This is not just a price cut; it is an injustice. Cocoa farmers are being asked to pay for problems they did not create,” Dr. Opoku stated, stressing that the cocoa farmers have never received a fair share of the international Free-On-Board (FOB) price despite decades of contribution to national revenue, foreign exchange inflows, and rural development.

The Minority situates the current crisis within a broader historical and political context.

During the 2024 general election campaign, cocoa pricing featured prominently in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) campaign message, with repeated assurances to cocoa-growing communities that farmer incomes would be protected and improved under an NDC administration.

President John Dramani Mahama and senior party figures publicly criticised the then producer price as inadequate and pledged significant upward reviews to restore dignity to cocoa farming.

However, barely a year into governance, the Mahama administration has overseen a drastic reduction in producer prices, a reversal the Minority describes as a “political betrayal” and a “collapse of moral authority” in rural policy.

According to the caucus, the price cut stands in direct contradiction to the campaign-era promises that helped secure electoral support in cocoa-growing regions across Ashanti, Eastern, Western North, Ahafo, Bono, and Central Regions.

The government, for its part, has justified the reduction on economic and structural grounds.

Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson has cited falling global cocoa prices, liquidity constraints at COCOBOD, market competitiveness challenges, and weaknesses in the cocoa financing model as reasons for the adjustment.

Cabinet discussions on Wednesday, February 11, 2026, reviewed what the government described as historical and systemic problems in the cocoa sector, including market price volatility, declining competitiveness of Ghanaian cocoa, and inherited financial pressures within COCOBOD.

Yet the Minority rejects this justification, arguing that systemic failures should not be transferred to farmers as income shocks. Dr. Opoku questioned why austerity measures appear to apply only to rural producers and not to public officials or sector managers.

He challenged the government to demonstrate fairness by applying similar cuts to executive salaries, allowances, and institutional budgets if the farmer is expected to absorb a near 30 per cent income reduction.

“If the cocoa farmer must suffer a 30 per cent cut, then everyone must share the pain. Let the CEO of COCOBOD and public officials also take the same reduction,” he said.

Beyond the price issue, the Minority directly targeted COCOBOD CEO Randy Abbey, accusing him of mismanaging the sector and failing to restore confidence in the cocoa financing and purchasing system.

They argue that under his leadership, COCOBOD has struggled with liquidity challenges, delayed payments, weak market positioning, and declining farmer confidence, making him unfit to continue in office.

The caucus formally demanded his dismissal, framing it as a necessary step to rebuild credibility and stabilize the cocoa industry.

The opposition also warned of wider national consequences, arguing that reducing cocoa incomes risks deepening rural poverty, increasing youth unemployment, encouraging migration from farming communities, and pushing frustrated farmers into illegal mining (galamsey) as an alternative livelihood.

Historically, declines in cocoa profitability have been linked to farm abandonment, environmental degradation, and the conversion of farmlands into illegal mining sites, a trend that the government itself has repeatedly pledged to combat.