Amid growing opposition criticism of the President’s State of the Nation Address, Mr. Victor Smith, the Director of Public Affairs of the Office the ex-President, Mr. Jerry John Rawlings, has accused President Kufuor of encouraging smuggling of cocoa by increasing the producer price.

“Kufuor’s government is threatening the security of neighbouring countries, more especially La Cote d’Ivoire, by taking the advantage of the rather bad situation prevailing there,” he told The Chronicle in an interview last week.

In an apparent attempt to rubbish the government’s claim that the recent increase in the production of cocoa was due to its pragmatic policies, Smith said, “ There is no proof that cocoa production increased within a short time through mass spraying.

Mass cocoa spraying has been in the system since the days of Ghana’s first prime minister, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.”

He said by increasing the producer price of cocoa in Ghana, farmers in the neighbouring countries were taking advantage of the situation to smuggle the produce to Ghana in return for higher bid, adding that this had the potential of curtailing the economies of those countries.

“If you increase the producer price, you are preventing neighbouring countries from acquiring foreign exchange to boost their economies. The economies of the neighbouring countries are getting bad as a result of the government encouragement of smuggling,” Smith noted.

In the President’s address, he noted: “In the 2002/2003 cocoa season, Ghana obtained its second highest cocoa production level, with a total of 496,793 tonnes as compared to the 580,869 tonnes produced in 1964/1965 season. Indeed, in terms of foreign exchange receipts, the $889million of the 2002/2003 cocoa season is the highest ever.”

The government attributed this achievement to its programme to control cocoa diseases and pests and President Kufuor said this would continue and support would be given for private sector participation in the domestic processing of cocoa beans.

“The cocoa farmers of Ghana are at long last coming into their own with very high producer prices and bonuses currently stand at 69% of FOB price to strengthen their commitment to their occupation.”

The ex-President’s aide accused President Kufuor of double standards in his relationship with La Cote d’Ivoire. “How can you bring peace to the people, when you, the chairman of ECOWAS, deprive them of their foreign exchange to the extent of putting the country’s security under threat and in abject poverty,” he charged.

He dismissed the assertion that Mr. Kufuor, as the ECOWAS chairman, had brought peace to war-torn countries in the West Africa sub-region. “There is no total peace as he is claiming,” he stressed.