{"id":116212,"date":"2026-02-20T18:29:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T18:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=116212"},"modified":"2026-02-20T18:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T18:29:13","slug":"govt-will-not-bow-to-pressure-to-restore-old-cocoa-producer-prices-mahama-ayariga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=116212","title":{"rendered":"Gov\u2019t will not bow to pressure to restore old cocoa producer prices \u2013 Mahama Ayariga"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='booster-block booster-read-block'>\n                <div class=\"twp-read-time\">\n                \t<i class=\"booster-icon twp-clock\"><\/i> <span>Read Time:<\/span>2 Minute, 15 Second                <\/div>\n\n            <\/div><div>\n<p>The Majority Leader in Parliament, Mahama Ayariga, has declared that the government will not succumb to pressure to reinstate the previous cocoa producer price, insisting that fiscal realities make such a move untenable.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on the floor of Parliament on Friday, February 20, Mr. Ayariga said while the John Mahama administration had pledged to substantially increase the producer price of cocoa, current revenue constraints mean the government cannot fully deliver on that commitment at this time.<\/p>\n<p>He maintained that decisions on cocoa pricing are guided by available resources and prevailing economic conditions, not political agitation.<\/p>\n<p>According to him, the ongoing global challenges affecting the cocoa sector have had a direct impact on government revenue and the income of farmers, making it impossible to promise what the state does not have.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou cannot give what you don\u2019t have, even if you promised it,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/AYARIGA-COCOA-PROTEST.mp3.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cWhat you are proposing is what you did, and you collapsed the economy of Ghana. You put COCOBOD in debt over 36 billion Ghana cedis. All of that is the cocoa farmers\u2019 money. So we are not going to pander to those sentiments.\u201d<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Read also: Gov\u2019t sets new farmgate cocoa price at GH\u20b541,392 per tonne for 2025\u20132026 season<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Majority Leader dismissed claims that a recent demonstration against the reduction in cocoa producer prices was driven by genuine farmers. <\/p>\n<p>He suggested that the protest was politically motivated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can assure you that the demonstrators, we know who they are. And we know their real motivation for demonstrating,\u201d he stated. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cGenuine cocoa farmers know that there is a world crisis. And that world crisis is definitely going to affect their bottom line, which is the income that they will earn from the cocoa sector.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Ayariga argued that the effects of the global downturn are not limited to smallholder farmers, stressing that many Members of Parliament and ministers are also cocoa farmers and will equally feel the impact of falling prices.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/AYARIGA-INVITATION.mp3.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cAll of us, when the cocoa prices go down, I can assure you that many Members of Parliament sitting on this side are also going to lose income. I know ministers who are cocoa farmers, and I know that they also are going to lose income,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe impression should not be created that it is only the ordinary person sitting out there in the village who is going to lose income. Everybody loses income as a result of this global crisis that has confronted us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added that while the situation is difficult, the government\u2019s approach is aimed at protecting the long-term stability of the cocoa sector rather than taking decisions that could worsen existing financial pressures.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n        <div class=\"booster-block booster-reactions-block\">\n            <div class=\"twp-reactions-icons\">\n                \n                <div class=\"twp-reacts-wrap\">\n                    <a react-data=\"be-react-1\" post-id=\"116212\" class=\"be-face-icons un-reacted\" href=\"javascript:void(0)\">\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/wp-content\/plugins\/booster-extension\/\/assets\/icon\/happy.svg\" alt=\"Happy\">\n                    <\/a>\n                    <div class=\"twp-reaction-title\">\n                        Happy                    <\/div>\n                    <div 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untenable.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17268,1945,575,1883,10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cocoa-producer-prices","category-hp-news-8","category-mahama-ayariga","category-national","category-politics","category-popular"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=116212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116212\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=116212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=116212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=116212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}