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Reports that over 30,000 bags of cocoa are locked up in villages in one district alone in the Western Region may sound alarming and disturbing to most people, but to those in the cocoa growing areas in Ghana, it is no news. Ghana, it is no news. According to the reports, following the collapse of bridges and the bad road network in the Amenfi West District, vehicles are finding it difficult to cart cocoa to the marketing centers. It is no news to cocoa farmers simply because, that has been the state of affairs ever since Tetteh Quarshie brought the first cocoa beans to the country Ghana. Not long ago, the media reported widespread smuggling of cocoa from Ghana to Cote d�Ivorie. The reason given for the upsurge in the smuggling business was the fact that, the Ivorians are buying the product at a higher price. Even though we share this view, we think that there are equally motivating factors that account for the frequent smuggling of our cocoa to the neighbouring country. And this has to do with the road network in those cocoa growing areas. In certain parts of the Western Region where the bulk of the nation�s resources are located, the roads are not only deplorable but they are also more than death-traps. Areas like Juaboso, Bia, Akontombra and Wassa have the worst road network in the country. And these are the areas that produce foodstuffs, cocoa, coffee, timber and a host of other natural resources. These areas are most often cut off from the rest of the country, especially during the raining seasons. It is a spectacle to behold articulated trucks loaded with cocoa or foodstuffs stranded for weeks. In contrast, our neighbours, have over the years, made it a deliberate policy to provide first class roads, especially those leading to the border towns and villages. The Ghanaian cocoa farmer, in the area, finds it more convenient to sell his produce just across the border than to struggle to get to their nearest buying centre in his own country. Infact there are reports of even private buying companies indulging in smuggling on a large scale. We have said it before, and we repeat it now, that even though he government has done well to significantly increase the producer price of cocoa, it is important that a serious look is taken at the road network in all the cocoa producing areas in the country. This is particularly so if the country is to discourage smuggling and to maintain our status as one of the world�s leading cocoa producing countries.