The emergency meeting is scheduled to take place tomorrow, Wednesday, 11th February 2026.
The meeting comes on the back of pressure mounted on the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) to pay cocoa farmers. For instance, a former presidential staffer, Dennis Miracles Aboagye, has said that assurances given to cocoa farmers by the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Cocoa Board, Dr Randy Abbey, are not inspiring.
Mr Aboagye noted that the cocoa challenges began in November 2025, yet the COCOBOD CEO is still offering assurances in February 2026 instead of providing concrete solutions.
“I listened to the COCOBOD CEO, and I wasn’t inspired. This crisis started as far back as November 2025, and here we are in February 2026, still telling farmers you’re ‘looking for solutions’. That is not assurance,” Mr Aboagye said.
Dr Abbey has assured cocoa farmers that COCOBOD and the government are working to find solutions to the challenges they are currently facing. He made the remarks after apologising to farmers for the difficulties confronting the sector.
A legal practitioner and policy analyst, Austin Kwabena Brako-Powers, has also called on the government to urgently renegotiate the current cocoa farmgate price with farmers, warning that prevailing global market conditions have rendered the existing price unsustainable.
According to him, the national conversation on cocoa pricing has been distorted by politics, preventing a clear understanding of the real economic challenges facing the sector. “The essence of the entire discussion has been lost to politics. The conversation is riddled with political point-scoring rather than facts,” he said.
Mr Brako-Powers explained on TV3’s Big Issues on Friday, February 6, 2026, that the fundamental challenge confronting the cocoa sector is the volatility of global spot prices, which has significantly altered the economic assumptions underlying Ghana’s current farmgate pricing structure.
He argued that it is no longer feasible for the government to continue guaranteeing the farmgate price of GH¢58,000 per metric tonne for the 2025/2026 cocoa season under current market conditions. “Today, the government simply will not be able to pay the farmgate price as fixed,” he stated.
Despite this, Mr Brako-Powers stressed that cocoa farmers who have already supplied beans through Licensed Buying Companies (LBCs) have enforceable accrued rights that must be honoured. “These are accrued obligations. Farmers have supplied cocoa, and the government must pay them what they are owed,” he said.
He noted, however, that once existing obligations are settled, the government must return to the table to renegotiate future pricing arrangements in a transparent and realistic manner, grounded in market realities rather than political promises.
Mr Brako-Powers rejected attempts by political actors to shift blame between the government and COCOBOD, insisting that the current difficulties cannot be explained simply by claims of mismanagement. “Those blaming COCOBOD or the government alone know that this is not the real reason why we are here,” he said.
He also dismissed suggestions that the lack of syndicated loans is solely responsible for the crisis, describing such arguments as overly simplistic. While acknowledging that the syndicated loan model has its flaws, he noted that it has been used for nearly three decades and cannot suddenly be blamed for the current challenges.
According to him, the syndicated loan framework itself is increasingly unsustainable, as it often deepens debt without delivering corresponding long-term benefits. However, he cautioned that focusing exclusively on loans distracts from the real issue of pricing decisions and global market dynamics.
“We need to engage in a dispassionate and honest discussion,” Mr Brako-Powers said. “We promised more to cocoa farmers, but when we went to the international market, the numbers simply did not support those promises.”
He urged policymakers to set aside politics and confront the hard economic questions. “Sometimes we just need to do the maths. Was it truly tenable to fix the farmgate price at GH¢58,000 under these conditions?” he asked.
Describing himself as a realist, Mr Brako-Powers warned against what he called “highfalutin political promises” that may be popular but economically unsound, stressing that unrealistic pricing ultimately harms both farmers and the state.
He also cautioned against illegal responses to pricing pressures, reminding stakeholders that cocoa smuggling remains a criminal offence and undermines Ghana’s cocoa industry.
Mr Brako-Powers concluded by calling for honesty, realism and transparency in renegotiating cocoa prices, arguing that only a fact-based approach—free from political spin—will safeguard farmers’ interests and ensure the long-term sustainability of the cocoa sector.
