The Ghana Civil-Society Cocoa Platform (GCCP) is urging the Ghana COCOBOD to reinforce its surveillance at various depots and cocoa-sheds.

According to the society, this will ensure that cocoa farmers benefit from the new farm gate price for cocoa with full transparency.

In a statement issued by the GCCP read, “As we have always said there are some inherent challenges when it comes to the purchasing of cocoa that needs to be addressed. One of the foremost ones is the fact that the purchasing clerks are known to adjust the scales to cheat the farmers.

It added, “So, what we are saying is that there needs to be high vigilance and surveillance by COCOBOD to endure that the farmers get the correct weight for their cocoa beans when they take it to the cocoa sheds.”

For a period, some cocoa purchasing clerks have been accused of taking advantage of farmers by illicitly altering weighing scales to the disadvantage of the farmers.

Meanwhile, President Akufo-Addo has announced of a new Living Income Differential (LID) leading to a 28 percent increase in the producer price of cocoa for the 2020/2021 crop season.

Also, the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has signed a syndicated loan agreement of US$1.3 billion for the purchase of cocoa beans in the 2020/2021 crop season.