Accra, Nov 30 - Ghana has banned the overland transit of cocoa and cocoa waste from neighbouring states across its territory to stop this being used as a cover for smuggling Ghanaian beans out of the country, officials said on Friday.
Stephen Ntim, deputy chief executive of industry regulator Cocobod, told Reuters some foreign cocoa merchants who obtained customs permits to transport cocoa from the Ivory Coast through Ghana to Togo were found to have been smuggling beans produced in Ghana's high-yielding Western cocoa region.
"We did our search and found that these people were operating along the borders in the Brong Ahafo region and part of the western region," he said.
Cocobod's Ntim said significant volumes of Ghanaian cocoa had been trafficked out of the world's No. 2 cocoa producer through what he called this "cunning way of smuggling". But he declined to give an estimate of the amount involved.
Recently, Ghana's Commissioner of Customs ordered the cancellation of permits granted to foreign companies engaged in the overland transit of foreign cocoa beans and cocoa waste, but the government was now transforming this into an all-out ban.
Ntim said although Ghana paid higher farm-gate prices than its neighbours, including the world's leading cocoa grower, Ivory Coast, merchants in those countries often preferred to have Ghana's cocoa to mix with their stock and improve its value.
Ghanaian cocoa is ranked among the world's best in terms of quality and enjoys a high premium.
ANTI-SMUGGLING DRIVE
Robert Kwabena Poku Kyei, the government's advisor on cocoa, said the ban was part of a general crackdown on smuggling.
"We're concerned about the activities of these people who all along had operated under the transit permit. They used it as an incentive for our cocoa to be smuggled outside," he said.
Local authorities in the eastern Volta Region, which shares a border with Togo, said smuggling of cocoa was on the increase and they were setting up a task force of farmers, local chiefs and young people to combat the illicit trade.
"The region's future in terms of cocoa production is threatened and there is a need for us to rise up and combat the menace," District Chief Executive Solomon Donkor said.
He mentioned the Jasikan, Hohoe and Kadjebi growing areas as the main focus of the proposed taskforce in the east.
As part of the anti-smuggling efforts, Cocobod has been providing vehicles and incentives to a unit of the armed forces that patrols the country's borders to stop smuggling of cocoa from high yielding areas such as Western, Brong Ahafo and Ashanti regions.
Ghana now pays a farm-gate price of 950 new Ghana cedis ($990) per tonne of cocoa, higher than the equivalent farm-gate prices in neighbouring countries, including Ivory Coast.