Market News

DES MOINES, Oct 22 (Reuters) – Ghana’s cocoa production in the 2025/26 season that started this month is likely to surpass the initial government projection of 650,000 metric tons due to good weather and crop renovation work, according to the country’s agriculture minister.

Initial yields from the harvest of the main crop have been good and diseases such as the swollen shoot have been better controlled, Eric Opoku told Reuters late on Tuesday on the sidelines of the 2025 Norman Borlaug International Dialogue in Des Moines, Iowa.

Ghana is the world’s second largest cocoa grower and exporter. Production in the previous season was estimated by the government at 500,000 tons, a low historical level, as the country was having trouble with diseases, negative weather and illegal mining that destroyed some fields.

Opoku said government efforts to fight cocoa diseases, including renovation in farms that were more heavily impacted, are showing results. He believes the country is making gains in the fight against illegal mining.

Global benchmark cocoa prices CCc1 have fallen recently from all-time highs above $12,000 per ton reached late last year. New York cocoa futures were trading on Wednesday at around $6,200/ton.

The minister said that despite the pullback, global prices are still positive for farmers. He said Ghana’s new farmgate price, which was raised twice before the harvest to $4,640 per ton, is at a good level and will help reduce smuggling of cocoa beans.

“I don’t think smuggling will be a problem now. Because it mostly depends on prices, and our prices are good now,” he said, adding that in previous years neighboring countries had better prices, which increased the incentive for smuggling.

Opoku said the government wants to sharply increase local processing of cocoa beans from current levels of less than 30% of the total crop. The aim is to boost returns from exports by selling byproducts such as cocoa butter.