SINGAPORE: Cocoa output in Ghana, the world’s second largest producer, is forecast to drop 18percent to 38percent in the 2026-2027 season, for a range of 470,000 metric tons to 620,000 metric tons versus 760,000 tons a year ago, the state-run cocoa marketer said on Thursday.
“We have structural problems in Ghana. Trees are old and we still have issues with diseases,” said Wisdom Kofi Dogbey, managing director of the Cocoa Marketing Company Ghana Ltd.
“We also have pollination that is failing for various reasons. We haven’t seen that in 20 years,” he said on the sidelines of an industry conference in Singapore.
London and New York cocoa prices have surged about 75percent to 80percent since June, driven by expectations of a shrinking global surplus and concerns that an El Nino weather phenomenon could disrupt output in West Africa, the world’s main cocoa-growing region.
The company holds the exclusive commercial authority and monopoly for external marketing and export of raw cocoa beans from Ghana.
Ghana’s cocoa production is expected to fall by at least 16percent in the 2026 to 2027 season, market regulator COCOBOD said in July, citing weather effects, the crop’s natural fruit-bearing cycle and disease.
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