Low prices and payment delays are pushing Ghana’s cocoa farmers to sell to increasingly sophisticated smuggling rings, siphoning off production from border areas and raising doubt over next season’s output, growers and officials say.

Failure to end the financing logjam and close the gap between Ghana’s official price and the amount paid by traffickers, they said, risks deepening an already dire situation in the world’s number two producer.

“From January to date, we have not been able to grade any cocoa,” said Frank Amoah-Frimpong, state-owned marketing board Cocobod’s top official in the eastern Volta and Oti border regions. “It’s pathetic. It’s sad.”

Global cocoa prices have climbed sharply since the start of this year, as poor weather, disease and illegal mining have led to disastrous harvests in Ghana and Ivory Coast – the world’s top grower.