Ghana aims to produce 1 million tonnes of cocoa in the 2014/15 season, up from around 900,000 tonnes in the 2013/14 season just closed, Deputy Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson told Reuters on Thursday. The world's number two cocoa producer this month received an international loan of $1.7 billion to finance purchases of cocoa beans from farmers, which its regulator said was the largest soft commodity deal in sub-Saharan Africa.
Meetings to set a price for the coming season, which will start in early October, are likely to begin on Thursday, Forson told Reuters in an interview. "We are hoping to do a little more than this season, so our target for the next crop is 1 million tonnes. We believe we will get that if we have good weather and we are able to stop the smuggling (to Ivory Coast), with the right pricing," he said.
Ghana currently pays 3,392 cedis ($1,060) for a tonne of cocoa, lower than prices received by Ivorian farmers, and this disparity has led to cocoa smuggling. Farmers in Ghana produced 866,742 tonnes of cocoa in the main crop season that ended in June. Authorities are yet to release figures for the just-ended light crop season, though production of around 20,000 tonnes is expected.
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