Browsing: Cocoa production in Ivory Coast

• Chocolate companies are avoiding paying minimum prices to cocoa farmers.
• In Ghana and Ivory Coast, farmers are forced to engage in child labour to maintain optimum cocoa production amid meagre returns.
• Cocoa prices peaked at $12,072 per tonne in February 2024.

Cocoa prices peaked at $12,072 per tonne in February of this year, only to drop to $7,960 per tonne this September, leaving farmers seeking solutions on how to cushion against such adverse price swings.

“Market reports say the world market price of cocoa has witnessed the highest levels of volatility over the past 12 months,” reported the Ghana Food and Agriculture Minister, Dr. Bryan Acheampong.

Ghana is one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of cocoa, one of the highest-priced agricultural food products in the world. To protect her farmers, Ghana has increased the producer price of cocoa by over 129 per cent, the minister announced.

“The cocoa …

• Across Ghana and Ivory Coast, climate change, illegal mining, cocoa industry woes, and a devastating disease known as swollen shoot have conspired to end West Africa’s cocoa supremacy.
• In Ivory Coast, 30% of cocoa plantations are infected by swollen shoot disease. Upto 600,000 hectares under Cocoa in Ghana are infected, too.
• The crisis in West Africa is offering opportunity to Ecuador, Brazil and Peru to become global cocoa production titans.

A double whammy of a devastating disease coupled with unchecked gold mining activities has set up a storm that is fast threatening to kill West Africa’s Cocoa supremacy.

For decades, Ghana and the Ivory Coast have held the mantle of titans in the cocoa world, jointly supplying over 60 per cent of the beans’ global demand. However, this year’s poor harvest as noted by an exclusive piece by Reuters, could spark a seismic shift in the cocoa production industry, …