COCOBOD: Cocoa Smuggling Costs Ghana Over $1bn in Three Years
By Praisebell Rosemond Larbi
The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has raised alarm over the deepening scourge of cocoa smuggling, revealing that Ghana has lost more than US$1 billion in revenue over the past three years due to the illegal movement of cocoa beans into neighbouring Togo and Côte d’Ivoire. Jake Kudjo Samahar, Director of Special Services at COCOBOD, disclosed the staggering figures during a working visit by COCOBOD board members to the Oti and Volta regions, where they engaged stakeholders and assessed the state of cocoa production and security operations.
According to Mr. Samahar, a cumulative 7,128.13 tonnes of cocoa were smuggled out of the country between the 2020 and 2025 crop years from the Volta and Oti regions alone. He noted that the worrying trend has contributed significantly to the drastic decline in cocoa production in the affected regions.
“The tonnage recorded for the 2020/21 crop year was 7,215.19, which reduced to 5,656.25 in 2021/22, further downward to 874.31 in the 2022/23 crop year, while 2023/24 recorded 468.75 tonnes with 2024/25 crop year recording 87.06 tonnes. The sharp fall, he stressed, reflects the growing diversion of beans away from Ghana’s formal cocoa value chain,” he explained.
Mr. Samahar further highlighted that from 2022 to 2025 alone, Ghana lost approximately US$1.1 billion, funds that should have accrued to the national economy through official cocoa sales. “We are losing a lot of revenue because if you look at within three years from 2022–2025, Ghana has lost almost $1.1 billion through cocoa smuggling into neighbouring Togo and Côte d’Ivoire,” he said.
COCOBOD’s investigations revealed that the illegal trade is being fuelled by weak border security and, in some cases, the active involvement of security personnel stationed along smuggling routes. Security operatives in both the Oti and Volta regions have been identified as key actors facilitating the illicit movement of cocoa beans across the borders, a development Mr. Samahar described as deeply troubling.
He explained that smuggling in the two regions manifests in two main forms. “The uniqueness of the smuggling in the Volta region and Oti is that we have two categories of smuggling. The first is the local smuggling, where cocoa beans are moved from our farms in the Volta region or Oti region into Togo. And then we have the transit ones that move from other regions through the corridors of the eastern corridor down into Togo,” he said.
“This means that the security services are not manning their checkpoints. Some of them have compromised themselves very much,” he added.
COCOBOD says the development not only undermines the national economy but also threatens the livelihoods of cocoa farmers whose beans are diverted into illegal markets. The Board is expected to intensify surveillance, strengthen security collaboration, and adopt stricter enforcement measures to curb the rising menace.
