Embryo - Justice for Supply Chain Participants - the Ghana Cocoa Case

In the fall of 2022 Ghana’s Agriculture minister Owusu Afriyie Akoto as the chairman of the Producer Price Review Committee (PPRC) on cocoa had a major decision to make. In Ghana’s government regulated Cocoa industry the price paid to farmers for bags of cocoa (64 kg per bag), was set by the government and provided them with just 6% of the value of the ultimate chocolate product. Cocoa growers complained that the current price was too low, especially given the rapid increase in the price of inputs and they demanded 1,500 cedi per bag. Some growers were tempted to shift to other crops including rubber, threatening Ghana’s government production goal of 850,000 tons. At the same time, large corporate buyers of cocoa (12 firms in total, mostly European) were attempting to “clawback” part of the value of the product. Akoto had to balance the importance of cocoa to the Ghanaian economy where the crop constituted 23% of the nation’s GDP with the needs of poor farmers. Further Akoto had other concerns included the need to operate in an environmentally sustainable way and to prevent child labor exploitation in the labor intensive crop. Indeed, Akoto had to wonder whether the current cocoa supply chain was just and efficient for all stakeholders?