The projected one million tonnes cocoa production as expected for this season may just be another propaganda by the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC). In the 2012 general budget statement delivered by the Finance Minister, Dr Kwabena Duffour, he disclosed that due to improved agricultural practices, fertilizer subsidy, improved seeds, provision of harvesters, hard work of cocoa farmers and increased payments made to farmers by government, cocoa production reached one million metric tons, the first for the country.
This figure and statement has however been disputed by industry experts. According to Ecobank Transnational Inc., the Lome, Togo-based bank has estimated that cocoa output in Ghana will be 850,000 to 900,000 metric tons this season, down from 1.024 million tons a year earlier.
Meanwhile there is a stalemate regarding the export of the beans to Belgium following a dispute over which body is liable to pay fee.
Safmarine Container Lines NV, a Belgian shipping company, hasn’t shipped any cocoa from Ghana, the world’s second-largest producer of the beans, in the past week because of a dispute about who is responsible to pay a fee to the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority.
Safmarine hasn’t made container shipments from Ghana and “we do not know when shipments will resume,” Didier Willemse, head of commodity sales at Safmarine, said by phone on Dec. 9 from Antwerp. A person who answered the phone at the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority’s office in Tema said management was in a meeting and no one was available to comment.
“Both sides are working on a resolution,” Philip Sigley, chief executive officer of the Federation of Cocoa Commerce Ltd. in London, said by phone today, referring to the port authority and shippers. “Some lines are shipping cocoa.” A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S’s Maersk Line hasn’t shipped cocoa from Ghana “lately,” Kenni Simon Skotte, general manager for Europe-West Africa trade, said in an e-mail last week in response to questions by Bloomberg News. “It is not known to us at this stage when cocoa shipments will resume on Maersk Line.”
“It is simply a commercial decision by Maersk Line to not currently book and load cocoa beans ex Ghana,” Sonny Dahl, director of West Africa services for Copenhagen-based Maersk, said by e-mail today. A.P. Moeller-Maersk is the world’s biggest container shipping company.
Cocoa prices have dropped 36 percent this year after production exceeded demand by 341,000 tons for the 2010-11 season, according to the International Cocoa Organization.
Cocoa for March delivery fell 3.1 percent to 1,296 pounds ($2,025) a ton by 12:06 p.m. on NYSE Liffe in London, the lowest price since November 2008. Cocoa for March delivery retreated 3.3 percent to $1,998 a ton on ICE Futures U.S. in New York.
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