Illegal mining, climate issues, diseases, and smuggling activities compelled export revenue of cocoa to fall by more than $500 million in the first quarter of 2024 as Ghana's annual production numbers continue to tumble.
The drop, reported in the Bank of Ghana's Summary of Macroeconomic and Financial Data for May 2024, comes at a time when the cedi is struggling against major trading currencies, having lost more than 20% of its value against the dollar since the beginning of the year.
The Bank of Ghana data revealed that cocoa export revenue experienced a significant decline, dropping from over $1 billion in the first quarter of last year to approximately $496 million this year. This marks the lowest level in nearly nine years.
According to a Bloomberg report, "the currency of the world’s second-biggest cocoa producer depreciated 0.2% to 14.9335 per dollar by the close of trading in Accra [yesterday], the lowest level since at least 1994 when Bloomberg began compiling the data."
The report also indicated that the current free fall of the cedi against the American greenback makes it "the fourth-worst performer among roughly 150 currencies tracked by Bloomberg worldwide, after the Egyptian Pound, Nigerian Naira and the Lebanese Pound."
