At the beginning of the intermediate marketing campaign, producers will sell their beans at 750 CFA francs per kilo instead of 1000 CFA francs in October last year. The announcement was made by the Coffee and Cocoa Council, which manages the sector.
The enthusiasm of the Ivorian cocoa producers will have lasted less than six months. In October last year, most of them estimated the price increase on their beans, from 825 CFA francs to 1000 CFA francs per kilo (from 1.30 to 1.50 euros per kilo). L’embellie did not survive the Covid-19 pandemic. Consumer demand for chocolate has declined.
By announcing a 25% reduction in the price paid to the producer, the Director General of the Coffee and Cocoa Council, Yves Koné, referred to “marketing difficulties” on the world market and also added another element: overproduction estimated at 100,000 tonnes in Côte d’Ivoire , a country that usually supplies two million tonnes of cocoa, or 40% of world production.
Half of Ivorian plantations below the poverty line
Therefore, forget the prospect of a sufficient wage price for planting machines in the long run. In October last year, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana announced the price of 1,000 CFA francs at the same time, after receiving a bonus of 400 dollars (340 euros) per tonne from the multinational chocolate companies, called “decent income difference”.
While specialists in the sector agree on the low remuneration to producers, some of them consider that the price of 1000 CFA francs per kilo was too optimistic and that the announced price of 750 CFA francs (approximately 1, 15 euros) is a return to reality. An analysis that showers producers’ hopes. According to the World Bank, one in two Ivorian cocoa farmers lives below the poverty line.
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