The Cocoa Abrabopa Association (CAA), a farmer-based organisation, has paid an amount of GH¢1.5 million in premium to 7,500 cocoa farmers across five cocoa growing regions in the country.

The cash premium, known as “Sustainability Differential,” saw additional GH¢65 received per bag of certified cocoa sold to CAA which is an increment on the GH¢52.50 per bag paid to farmers last year and a total cash of GH¢9.2 million.

The Sustainability Differential is an additional mandatory cash earned by farmers on their produce for the 2023/2024 crop season to motivate them to adhere to the sustainable farming practices under the Rainforest Alliance Certification Programme (RACP) and improve their living conditions.

The RACP is an initiative deployed by CAA to help farmers increase their yields, promote environmental sustainability, as well as respect Human Rights Due Diligence protocols among its clients in the cocoa growing regions.

The beneficiary farmers were from 39 cocoa operational areas in the five cocoa regions, namely, Ashanti, Eastern, Western, Western-North and Volta.

Support

Addressing the cocoa farmers at a durbar in Tarkwa, the acting Executive Secretary and Chief Finance and Operations Manager for CAA, Patrick John Van Brakel, urged the farmers to sign their premium letters as it helped management to “Pay premiums to farmers electronically and on time”.

He encouraged farmers to produce quality cocoa beans this year as their target was “18,000 Metric Tons (MT) for the 2023/2024 crop season. “Everyone of you must work hard for us to achieve this together and also remember to record every delivery in your passbook”.

Mr Van Brakel noted that, “CAA will continue to support farmers with initiatives such as traceability training, advanced farming techniques, pest and disease monitoring and economic shade tree provision”.

The Council Chairman for CAA, Ismaila Pomasi, underscored the importance of the regional durbar and urged farmers to join the Cocoa Abrabopa Pension Scheme enacted in 2012 to protect them in retirement.  

“The significance of the durbar is to provide a platform for farmers, the council and management to fraternise and share ideas on the strategic policies and programmes outlined to propel the association's growth and development,” he said.

For his part, the Sustainability Manager for CAA, Wilfred Apiung, said the sustainability initiatives had since its inception supported several developmental projects in the areas of education, water and sanitation in the cocoa operational areas.

He urged farmers to take “the shade tree planting initiative seriously as it had been observed that many farmers were not planting the trees distributed to them”, adding that the shade tree planting and monitoring exercise was one of the environmental sustainability requirements needed to be strictly adhered to.

Appreciation

Speaking on behalf of the farmers, Daniel Dadzie expressed gratitude to management of CCA for the increment and gave the assurance of their commitment in helping to meet the 18,000 tonnes target for the 2023/2024 season.