Research Summary 32, An African Success Story: Ghana's Cocoa Marketing System, IDS Working Paper No. 318

Abstract

Over the past decade, Ghana's state-run cocoa marketing board – the Cocobod – has achieved record levels of production, good returns for farmers, exceptional product quality, professional export management, an excellent credit record, and relatively incorrupt and effective internal marketing. This contrasts with the situation in the 1960s and 1970s, when the Ghana cocoa marketing board became notorious for inefficiency and corruption, contributing significantly to wider economic decline. This paper explores how success was achieved and sustained, not through radical restructuring or privatisation, but through smaller steps that matched institutions to context, and retained the benefits of centralised control while constraining destructive exploitation. A key lesson for policymakers is the need to match reform efforts to constraints and opportunities in a specific context. This is a two-page summary of a paper which can be accessed in full on this page