African farmers should determine cocoa price – Ooni
Olufemi Atoyebi, Ibadan
The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi,
said cocoa farmers in Africa should be allowed to determine the price of
the produce in the international market.
The monarch, who made the call at the
first Regional Cocoa Symposium held at the International Institute of
Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan on Tuesday, said it was morally wrong for
external bodies to determine what the price of a farm produce would be,
bearing in mind the fact that Africa was producing 70 per cent of the
global cocoa yield.
The Senior Programme Director for West
African Programme, World Cocoa Foundation, Mr. Paul Macek, said the
symposium was held to encourage farmers to improve on the production of
cocoa.
The Ooni said, “If you produce
something, you should be able to determine the price, but cocoa is not
like that. And for a region producing about 70 per cent of the global
consumption and yet you don’t have a say on the price.
“The price is being determined at the
New York Stock Exchange and London Stock Exchange. I don’t think that is
morally fair to the producers. I don’t think the principle of fairness
and equity is in that at all.
“If they say cocoa price today is $2,000
per tonne because of market forces; that is what it’s going to be. If
by tomorrow, they say it is $1,000; that is what it is going to be. What
is important is for all the farmers to be considered in determining the
price. This is beyond Nigeria now.
“All the cocoa producing countries in
Africa should come together and work as one big and happy family to
address this injustice and to the glory of God, this gathering is a
global gathering and I have begun the process by putting it across to
them.”
The three-day event had participants
drawn from across the cocoa producing countries of the West and Central
African regions as well as international stakeholders.
The Ooni of Ife, who was optimistic
about the enormous financial and employment creation potential in cocoa
production, said allowing the producing countries to determine the
prices would go a long way in encouraging the youth to embrace cocoa
cultivation.
The monarch added, “Look at it (from
this way), if they buy cocoa for $2,000, for instance, they will use it
to get more than $30,000 value; you can see how wide the margin of
impact is. We need to correct the injustice so as to encourage our
youths to embrace the farming and cultivation of cocoa
“Africans produce up to 70 per cent of
the cocoa that is needed globally, yet the price is not determined by
Africans but by Europe, where the crop is not produced. They should
break this disparity between the cocoa farmers in Africa and those
buying in Europe.
“So many farmers in Africa have not had
the opportunity to taste chocolate, yet they work all their lives
producing cocoa at its best. Stakeholders don’t have to wait until the
farmers in tropical Africa producing cocoa team up to form a cartel and
refuse to supply cocoa until they are being carried along in determining
the price of cocoa.”
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