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Ghana’s Unpaid Cocoa Farmers Are Forced to Go Hungry

Ghana’s cocoa regulator Cocobod owes farmers for tens of thousands of tons of beans as global cocoa prices have halved to about $4,000 per metric ton. The payment backlog forces smallholders like Joseph Dautey and Jacob Tetteh to skip meals, defer school fees, and abandon farm maintenance. Licensed buying companies have closed their local offices, cutting off the only legal sales channel and leaving 50,000 metric tons of unsold cocoa at ports. Farmers are demanding immediate payment and a price‑linking mechanism to align farm‑gate rates with international market movements.