COCOBOD to close purchases for 2018/19 main crop season

This was contained in a statement issued by the sector regulator.

However, COCOBOD said that it will extend the date by one more week to Thursday [June 6, 2019] to allow Licensed Buying Companies (LBCs) to obtain returns from up country centres.

For the 2018/2019 cocoa season, COCOBOD plans to purchase nine hundred thousand metric tonnes of cocoa beans.

This is supported by the Board’s annual syndicated loan of $1.3 billion secured from twenty-one banks at an interest rate of 2.5 percent.

This is the second consecutive time that the Ghana COCOBOD has secured 1.3 billion dollars for its purchases since the 1.8 billion dollars secured in the 2016/2017 crop year.

The changing world market prices of cocoa caused the drop in amount secured for the just ended cocoa season.

But in an earlier interview with Accra-based Citi FM, COCOBOD’s CEO Mr. Aidoo said his outfit will not be tempted to increase amount secured despite improvement in crop yield.

“When you syndicate, you collateralize cocoa for whatever amount you take. So when the price of cocoa is going down, you will be giving up more cocoa. Because world market price is continuing to fall, we need to tread cautiously…that is why we always go in for a manageable amount based on research by the Monitoring and Research Department of COCOBOD,” the CEO said.