Cocobod is seeking US$1.3bn syndicated loan for cocoa purchases

The Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD, Joseph Boahen Aidoo earlier told the media, “Initially we are expecting $1.3 billion. We tread cautiously even though our production has gone above 900,000 metric tonnes, we [still] tread cautiously because of the fall in the price of cocoa.”

“This is because when the price of cocoa is falling you need larger volumes of cocoa to collateralize,” he explained.

In 2018, Cocobod raised a similar amount which was used in purchasing some 900,000 metric tonnes of cocoa beans for the crop season.

This is coming at a time when the two top cocoa producing countries (Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire), recently succeeded in agreeing on a floor price of cocoa beans to be pegged at $2,600 per tonne. The two countries got an agreement with global processors and marketers after an intensive two-day stakeholder engagement in Accra.

The two West-African countries are co-operating to address the common challenges they face in the production and marketing of cocoa. This is to create a conducive platform for effective engagement with traders, processors, manufacturers, and retailers on all relevant issues of mutual interest, including farmers’ income.

Meanwhile, there are fears that the new cocoa floor price may not be sustained due to the low consumption rate of cocoa especially in Africa which accounts to just 4 percent of global consumption rates.