Ghana’s cocoa regulator warns of a decline in production, due to the severe rains

Ghana’s cocoa regulator said on Tuesday that more diseases could spread because of heavy rain and lack of sunlight, which could cause a modest drop in production. This came after farmers asked the government to step in to lessen the effects of bad weather.

As a result of diseases, bad weather, and widespread illegal gold mining, which destroys cocoa fields and lowers yields, the world’s second-largest cocoa producer in West Africa has seen its output drop in recent seasons.

Ghanaian farmers’ group said last week that lower yields and a higher risk of fungal diseases like black pod disease were caused by cooler temperatures, too much rain, and not enough sunshine.

According to a statement, that could hurt farmers’ wages and have effects that last for a long time.

“We went to these 72 cocoa growing districts and saw fungi on the different cocoa trees because of the weather,” Nana Oboadie Bonsu, head of the farmers’ association, told Reuters.

Because the group was worried, Ghana’s COCOBOD regulator said it had stepped up programs to control diseases and spray large areas.

“While it is too early to provide definitive figures for the current season, preliminary assessments suggest that production may see a moderate decline compared to earlier projections,” Reuters reported.

Also, COCOBOD said it wants to finish distributing fungicides before the busiest harvest time so that as few crops lose their output as possible.

COCOBOD statistics from May showed that Ghana was likely to fall short of its goal of 650,000 metric tons of production for the 2024–2025 season.