Heavy politicisation of cocoa industry has affected sector – Professor Peprah

An Associate Professor of Finance at Andrews University, Professor Williams Peprah, has expressed worry about the heavy politicisation of the cocoa farming industry.

According to him, the politicisation has made it difficult to see the actual benefit of the industry from policy propositions and implementations.

Speaking in an interview in relation to the difficulties facing the cocoa industry, the US-based Finance Professor said commodity prices are very sensitive, thus the government should be mindful of the policy prescription to avoid losing gains.

He proposed the establishment of a Commodity Stabilisation Fund to address funding challenges anytime the industry is facing liquidity issues.

“The world market price, especially commodities like cocoa is highly price sensitive, so whatever decision one will take will always have to remember that the price can go up or down based on the product and market fluctuation. It has already been projected that supply (cocoa beans) was increasing on the market. We should have anticipated that the price would come down”.

“Just after Covid-19, we realise that cocoa price was going up because there was shortage. And if I was part of the team then, I will have strategise that the price will come down and whatever price we are giving to the cocoa farmers we will have factored in another strategy to probably to establish what I may term as a Commodity Stabilization Fund for all the commodities we have – gold, oil, cocoa – and put a certain percentage in that fund, so that any time there are price fluctuations that fund will be used to support the farmers””, he explained.

He urged policymakers to craft an enhanced strategy to address the numerous challenges in the cocoa industry.

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