Cocoa Merchant Ghana Limited (CML) and BeyondBean Foundation have announced GH₵1,115,200million premium for the 2020/22 cocoa season for farmers in Samreboi, which translates to GH₵20.50 per bag that will be purchased within the period.
This announcement represents a 33.3 percent increase of the GH₵15 per bag premium paid during the 2020/21 cocoa season.
During the period under review, the Samreboi project resulted in the purchase of 3,400 metric tonnes (mt), which is 54,400 bags of cocoa purchases.
The Managing Director of CML, Alhaji Abdul Fataa Adamu, at the premium launch noted that the sustainable cocoa programme has the overall goal of improving the income and livelihoods of cocoa farmers and farm workers. This is through implementing UTZ/Rainforest Alliance certification standards and new initiatives for the value-added market.
“Due to our good work, MARS through Beyond Beans Foundation adopted the Samreboi district’s cocoa merchants to produce and deliver good quality UTZ/Rainforest-certified cocoa beans.
“The farmers were taken through training and became UTZ/Rainforest-certified. FERRERO through Beyond Beans Foundation purchased 3,400 metric tonnes of cocoa during the just-ended cocoa season,” he stated.
However, he said the just-ended season has been one of the most challenging in the company’s history. “We had to manoeuvre our way through very hard and difficult times to reach where we are today. As of the middle of September, for instance, we had unpaid invoices amounting to GH₵76,045,059 with Cocobod.”
The penal charges on these unpaid invoices amounted to GH₵7,028,506. Some of the unpaid invoices dated as far back as April 2022. This, he said, happened when Cocobod had fully recovered all the seed funds that were allocated to the company.
This development, he reckons, adversely affected operations in the field in terms of purchases.
He therefore used the opportunity to thank farmers and all the field staff for their loyalty, dedication to duty and hard work during the difficult times.
The Project Supervisor-Standards and Assurance Department of Beyond Beans Foundation, Stanley Asomani Asante, said BeyondBeans started its sustainability programme with CML in 2016.
Also, he said, the Samreboi project that started in 2018 took off with 1,001 farmers – who were taken through the training to become double-certified for UTZ and RA with an estimated yield of 1,200mt.
Since then, the group has grown bigger – and in the 2021/22 season had a total membership of 2,525 farmers, he added.
Among others, he observed that within the period they distributed 142,466 cocoa seedlings to farmers; and 71,477 shade tree seedlings for the Agroforestry project.
It also includes some 10 Demo farms, while some 190 farmers’ farm and tree seal (land and tree documentation) were carried out.
He urged farmers to continue attending training and implement the technical recommendations on their farms to ensure good yields and improved livelihoods.
