Ivory Coast doubles the purchase price of cocoa from local producers

Côte d’Ivoire today fixed the price of cocoa for local producers at 2.3 euros per kilogram for the intermediate season, an increase of 50%, due to increases in world prices, announced the Minister of Agriculture.

The intermediate season runs from April to September.

“The Government of Côte d’Ivoire decided to set the producer price at 1,500 CFA francs [2,3 euros] per kilogram. This is a price level that has never been reached in the history of the cocoa industry”, declared Minister Kobenan Kouassi Adjoumani at a press conference.

This increase comes at a time when cocoa prices are breaking records in raw materials markets.

In New York, for example, the value more than tripled in one year, reaching 10,000 dollars (around 9,282 euros) per ton, due to bad weather (rain followed by drought) in producing countries such as Côte d’Ivoire, which harmed the harvests.

Côte d’Ivoire sells its cocoa beans in advance and the purchase price is set by the Government.

In this way, it is less sensitive to market fluctuations than other countries, such as Cameroon, a smaller producer, where the system is liberalized.

Faced with rising prices, some people in Côte d’Ivoire criticized this system, arguing that, in countries where the system is liberalized, a kilo of cocoa is currently sold three to four times more expensive.

“Those who defend this argument forget that our country has already experienced the liberalized system, whose results did not meet expectations”, replied the minister, recalling that, between 2000 and 2011, “derisory prices” were paid to producers when world prices fell. .

“In the stabilized system, the daily rise in world prices is not passed on immediately, but benefits producers with a time lag”, he added.

This announcement of the price increase was well received by some producer representatives.

“Our concerns were taken into account. The system in force ensures an income for producers”, said the general secretary of the Central Agricultural Union of Côte d’Ivoire, Thibault Yoro.

Ivory Coast cocoa represents 45% of world production – more than two million tons – and 14% of the Gross Domestic Product of this African nation.