Abidjan (AFP) – Ivory Coast, the world’s leading cocoa producer, on Wednesday cut the price paid to its growers by nearly 60 percent, the government said, to try to address a sales slump affecting the sector. Agriculture Minister Bruno Kone announced the reduction to 1,200 CFA francs a kilo ($2, 1.82 euros) — which comes amid a fall in world cocoa prices and an oversupply crisis. “The price of cocoa on the international market is forcing us to make an adjustment,” Kone said.
The Ivorian government sets the price of cocoa paid to its producers twice a year, but its latest announcement comes a month earlier than normal. The sector accounts for 14 percent of the west African country’s gross domestic product and around five million people depend on it for their living. In October, just ahead of his re-election, President Alassane Ouattara announced himself that authorities were setting the price at a record high of 2,800 CFA francs a kilo. But global cocoa prices, which went through the roof in 2024 before starting to drop in 2025, have plunged this year, meaning Ivorian cocoa costs much more than world market prices.
After soaring to $12,000 per tonne in late 2024, the price per tonne on the world market is currently $2,900. “We would all have liked a better price, but you have all followed the trend in the international price,” the minister said Wednesday.
Growers lose out – Trade unionist Yao Yao, based in the western city of Duekoue, voiced disappointment that the state was not doing more to offset “such a dizzying drop.” “Honestly, we’re not happy. We, the growers, are the ones who are going to lose out in this situation,” he told AFP. With Ivorian prices out of step with the world market price, exporters have delayed purchases in recent months, while some buyers have offered lower prices in return for immediate payment, sources have told AFP.
In response to the hardship faced by producers, the state’s Coffee Cocoa Council announced in January it would buy at the record price tens of thousands of tonnes of cocoa piling up across the country. Kone told radio broadcaster RFI last week that 64,000 tonnes had since been purchased. Unionist Yao Yao said however that some farmers “still haven’t received any money.”
Wednesday’s price adjustment follows that made by neighbouring Ghana, the world’s second-largest cocoa producer, which cut prices by 30 percent in mid-February.
© 2024 AFP
