For a crop that contributes “about $2 billion in foreign exchange annually” to Ghana’s economy (Ghana Cocoa Board), cocoa has for decades been the West African country’s economic backbone and continues to be, even at its illegal mining (galamsey)-induced ebb with some assistance from notorious smugglers.
Cultivated in the Eastern, Ashanti, Bono, Ahafo, Volta, Central and Western North and South Regions of Ghana, cocoa farming and its related activities constitute the livelihood of an estimated 850,000 farm families, according to COCOBOD, which was first established by ordinance in 1947 as the Cocoa Marketing Board (CMB) but later became Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), as the main agency responsible for the development of the cocoa industry through the introduction of pragmatic and sustainable productivity initiatives.
Per COCOBOD figures, in 2021 alone, cocoa production and its related activities contributed more than 10 per cent to Ghana’s GDP – about GHS3.1 billion ($533 Million). In terms of employment, the cocoa subsector alone employs over one million farmers. Taking the knock-on effect of the cocoa sector into account, it means it provides a livelihood for “millions of people in the commerce, services and industrial sectors of the economy and thus, making the cocoa industry a pillar of Ghana’s economic development drive.” (COCOBOD).
According to the International Cocoa Organization, Ghana is the world’s second-largest cocoa-producing country contributing about 20% of the total global production with Ivory Coast leading. However, production has been fluctuating and tottering since 2011. According to COCOBOD, Ghana recorded its highest-ever cocoa production of 1,047, 000 metric tons in the 2020/2021 crop year. “However, since attaining this feat, cocoa production has rather been sluggish, with the country struggling to achieve an average of 800,000 tons of cocoa production annually. This has led to simmering disquiet among cocoa farmers and also industry players, watchers, connoisseurs and policymakers,” COCOBOD laments.
COCOBOD attributes the declining levels of cocoa beans stocks to “unbridled and unmitigated age-old challenge of cocoa smuggling to neighbouring Cote d’Ivoire and Togo, mostly along the Eastern and Western corridors,” which it noted on its website, “Has significantly caused a dip in revenue from cocoa trade.”
It also partly blames the “twin challenge of the Cocoa Swollen Shoot and Virus Disease (CSSVD) and moribund cocoa farms,” explaining: “CSSVD affects about 17% of Ghana’s total cocoa tree stock while 23% of the total tree stocks are overaged, moribund and unproductive and need massive rehabilitation.” What this means, COCOBOD notes, is that “only 60% of the country’s total cocoa tree stock is productive while 40% is technically redundant.”
Additionally, COCOBOD said: “The rampant threat of illegal small-scale mining (Galamsey) continues to hang around the neck of the country like an albatross, wreaking unimaginable havoc on Ghana’s cocoa landscape.” The Board complains: “From Wassa Akropong in the Wassa Amenfi East District of the Western South Region to Akwatia in the Kwaebibirem District in the Eastern Region, the level of devastation of productive cocoa farms as a result of galamsey activities is a tearjerker and an apology to our conscience as Ghanaians.”
COCOBOD said: “What makes it even more heart-wrenching is the fact that there appears to be absolutely no hope in sight in addressing this canker as the nation appears virtually impotent and powerless in handling the menace. Consequently, hundreds of hectares of productive cocoa farms are razed down on a daily basis much to the chagrin of all, as law enforcement agencies look on unconcerned and in some cases complicit in our woes.” In COCOBOD’s own opinion, “Galamsey has consequently contributed largely to the unfortunate sharp decline in Ghana’s cocoa production as witnessed in recent times.”
So aside from destroying hitherto pristine water bodies like the Pra, Ankobra and Birim, which are now murky and chemical-laden with mercury and cyanide and, thus, cannot be used for anything productive, galamsey is also taking a toll on Ghana’s brown gold and threatening the country’s status as a major producer of cocoa. Another risk is the threat of rejection of Ghana’s cocoa by major importers such as the Netherlands, Malaysia, Germany, Switzerland, the United States, France, Canada, Belgium, Italy, Turkey and Spain, due to chemical traces in the beans produced as a result of the pollution of the river bodies with toxic chemicals which may find their way onto cocoa farms.
According to the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC), in 2022, Ghana exported $1.08 billion worth of cocoa beans. It says the main destinations of exported cocoa beans from Ghana were the Netherlands ($153 million), the United States ($145 million), Malaysia ($131 million), France ($99.6 million), and Japan ($80.7 million). In February 2024, however, Reuters quoted two sources at COCOBOD in a report that said Ghana’s cocoa output for the 2023/24 season was expected to be almost 40% below the 820,000 metric ton target. It attributed the expected shortfall to strong seasonal winds and a lack of rain, along with smuggling, damage caused by illegal gold mining, and swollen shoot disease. In the 2022/23 season, COCOBOD said about 150,000 tons of cocoa was lost to smuggling and galamsey. Also, COCOBOD said the swollen shoot virus wiped off about 500,000 hectares of farmlands as of early 2024.
Without a man-made problem such as galamsey, cocoa production already has a ton of hurdles to clear. Adding galamsey to the mix makes the situation even direr. According to the Business and Financial Times, there are over 7,470 galamsey in Ghana. Also, the Ghana Agricultural Workers Union has warned that the country has lost about 2.5 million hectares of forest reserve to illegal and uncontrolled mining, adding that Ghana also loses some US$2 billion annually to the destruction of cocoa farms for galamsey activities. In June 2024, the head of public affairs at COCOBOD, Mr Fiifi Boafo, told journalists that: “Illegal mining activities are cutting off farmers from their farms,” noting: “Farmers find it difficult to get aid to harvest cocoa due to these disruptions.” He highlighted that as a result of the combined ills of galamsey, disease, bad weather and smuggling, Ghana lost $500 million in cocoa revenue.
Also, the Deputy Chief Executive in-Charge of Agronomy and Quality Control at the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Dr Emmanuel Agyemang Dwomoh, on day 2 of a National Consultative Dialogue on Small-Scale Mining in the national capital, Accra on Thursday, 15 April 2021, revealed at the time that more than 5,000 hectares of cocoa farmlands in the Western North Region had been destroyed by illegal mining activities. He was quoted by ClassFMonline.com as saying: “When we look at the table that is being shown now, you’ll realise that most of these, if you take Western North, for instance, most of the farms that we have established over the years have all been affected by galamsey and illegal mining. In Western North alone, over 5,000 hectares of land under cocoa cultivation have been destroyed by illegal mining.”
Dr Agyemang Dwomoh went on to point out that the Western North region was not an isolated case. “When you come to Eastern and Ashanti Region, the situation is the same. And as we speak, more harm is being done in this cocoa communities”, he noted, adding: “The impact of these mining activities on cocoa production is enormous”. According to Dr Agyemang Dwomoh, “there is crop loss, reduction in crop yield and income, loss of vegetation, the fertility of the topsoil is destroyed, and there is dropping of immature pods as a result of the chemicals that they use”. Also, he said: “They turn to have cherelles of cocoa dropping and the whole farm being rendered unable to yield anything in the course of the season. There is a high risk from polluted water bodies due to the use of mercury and other chemicals”, he warned.
As a result of the negative impact of galamsey, Dr Agyemang Dwomoh said the European Union (EU) had threatened to ban cocoa from Ghana. “As we speak, EU is threatening to ban Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, to impose legislative instrument restrictions on the importation of cocoa from Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire to their courts” due to the deforestation being caused by galamsey in most of the cocoa-growing areas. “When you take the satellite images, you will see those places in red. The EU thinks that all those places are red because cocoa is causing land degradation. Meanwhile, it is as a result of the galamsey activities.”
It is, therefore, sad that no government since the inception of the Fourth Republican Constitution of Ghana, has been able to mitigate or completely stop galamsey and its devastating consequences on not only the cocoa and agricultural sector but also health and the environment.
There have been instances where chiefs, traditional leaders, politicians, politically exposed people as well as security personnel have been accused of direct or indirect involvement in galamsey but they have always denied those claims.
It is, however, fair to say that different governments have made some efforts at stopping galamsey to no avail. What is not clear is whether those efforts were genuine actions or mere smokescreens to fool the masses into thinking the problem was being tackled so they could shut up. And while the politicians milk galamsey for political capital depending on where they stand, they must all realise that Ghana is not the only cocoa producer in the world. Apart from Ivory Coast, there are several other cocoa producers that major exporters of cocoa beans and products can turn to. Should that happen in the future due to chemical safety and other environmental concerns, the whole of Ghana and not just the politicians, chiefs and security personnel who either stood aloof or partook in the destruction of the country’s water bodies and forest reserves through galamsey, will be the losers. If Ghana is no longer able to meet the production capacity of the major exporters, those countries will simply go to the next major producer.
