Cocoa farmers demand 2010/2011 bonuses

Purchasing clerks and cocoa farmers, who supplied cocoa to Akroso District ‘B’ of Transroyal Limited in the Eastern Region, besieged the district office on Thursday to demand payment of the second tranche of 2010/11 farmers’ bonus.

As at the close of Friday November 23, when the Ghana News Agency visited the district office, management had still not responded to them, though the protest continued that day.

The purchasing clerks said their counterparts in Adwumapa, Produce Buying Company and Cocoa Merchants, have all received their bonuses and paid to their respective farmers.

Mr Fred Owusu, one of the clerks said their farmers kept on calling at their society centres to demand for their bonuses, which compelled them to come with some of the them to the District Manager to ascertain the facts themselves.

The District ‘B’ Manager, who declined to give his full but Nana, admitted failure to pay the bonuses to the farmers. He however declined to explain the cause of the failure to the Ghana News Agency when he was contacted.

Mr Osei Okyere, Manager, Akroso District ‘A’ when approached said Transroyal Management was aware of the administrative bottlenecks of District ‘B’ and were making efforts to resolve them.

Opanyin Yaw Darko, a cocoa farmer at Badukrom near Akroso, appealed to the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) to look into the matter and retrieve their bonuses for them.

Source: GNA