The People’s National Convention (PNC) has welcomed the producer price for cocoa announced by the government.
The PNC in a statement signed by its General Secretary, Janet Asana Nabla, said it was of the firm conviction that an increment in cocoa producer prices by 21 per cent was commendable in the light of global economic crisis coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia/Ukraine war induced hardship all over the world.
Government pegged the producer price for cocoa at GH¢800 per bag of 64 kilogrammes. The new price took effect last Friday for the 2022-2023 crop season.
By this, a tonne of cocoa increased from GH¢10,560 per tonne to GH¢12,800 per tonne.
Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, announced the new cocoa producer price at a press briefing in Accra last Wednesday.
Global crisis
The PNC said as an economy that was negotiating with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to improve its debt management, government’s resolve to ensure farmers earned a decent income and make cocoa farming lucrative should be commended.
“The PNC is calling on all Ghanaians to kindly appreciate the economic difficulties we are in and to redirect our taste from the consumption of foreign goods to that of local ones to help in boosting the Ghanaian economy and to bear with the government in its policy implementation,” The PNC said.
The statement said the PNC believed that this was not the time for anyone to wish the government bad, adding that should the economic situation get out of hand no successive governments would have it easy to manage the economy.
Meanwhile, the General Secretary of the PNC has dissociated the PNC from an earlier statement issued by the National Youth Organiser of the PNC, Mark Ewusi Arkoh, in which he has described the new farm gate prices for cocoa beans as an “insult” to farmers.
Reacting to that statement, dated Thursday, October 6, 2022, Ms Nabla appealed to the public to disregard the said statement, which she described as ill-written.
“That statement is not from the PNC and the party is working with those who published it to unveil the faceless persons behind the statement,” she said.
She appealed to media houses to kindly verify all statements coming from the party with the General Secretary of the PNC before publishing.
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