By Sarah Baafi
Ghana must urgently reform the structure of its cocoa sector or risk falling further behind global competitors. This view was expressed by former Energy Minister and former NDC MP for Pru East, Kwabena Donkor.
Speaking on GTV Breakfast Show during a discussion examining the state of Ghana’s power and agriculture sectors, Mr Donkor described the current cocoa governance model as outdated, inefficient and fundamentally broken.
He traced Ghana’s cocoa decline using stark statistics. In 1964, Ghana produced three times more cocoa than Côte d’Ivoire. Today, the situation has dramatically reversed, with Côte d’Ivoire producing about 3.6 times more cocoa than Ghana in the 2025/2026 season.
According to Mr Donkor, the problem is not cocoa farmers but the failure of the system governing the sector. He blamed decades of resistance to reform, arguing that Ghana “kept the status quo for too long” while global trade and agricultural economics evolved.
At the centre of his critique is the Ghana Cocoa Board, which he described as a textbook example of poor corporate governance. COCOBOD currently acts as regulator, sole buyer and sole seller of cocoa — a structure economists define as a monopsony.
“You cannot be the regulator and the player at the same time,” Mr Donkor said, likening the arrangement to being “judge and executioner.” He argued that such a system removes incentives for efficiency, innovation and accountability.
He called for COCOBOD to be broken up, with its role limited strictly to regulation — including quality control, research and policy direction. Other functions such as marketing, extension services and operations, he said, should be handled by separate, independent institutions, following examples from peer cocoa-producing countries that restructured their sectors in the 1990s.
Beyond governance, Mr Donkor raised concerns about farmer incomes and price volatility. He questioned whether Ghana truly intends to guarantee stable incomes for cocoa farmers, noting that global cocoa prices naturally fluctuate.
If stability is the goal, he proposed the creation of an independent cocoa stabilisation fund. Under his suggestion, cocoa farmers would continue to receive at least 70% of the Free On Board (FOB) price, while administrative costs would be reduced to between 10% and 15%. A minimum of 10% from the remaining margin, he said, should be paid into a professionally managed stabilisation fund overseen by a fund manager appointed by the Minister of Finance.
Such a fund, he explained, would be invested and drawn upon only when global prices fall, cushioning farmers against shocks without burdening the national budget.
Mr Donkor warned that without bold reforms, Ghana risks remaining trapped in what he described as a “20th-century cocoa model” while competitors operate with modern, flexible systems.
“The cocoa sector has become a rock that refuses to change,” he said. “If we want to protect farmers and restore Ghana’s leadership in cocoa, we must move decisively into the 21st century.”
