Cocoa: sharp reduction in the price paid to growers in Côte d'Ivoire
Drying cocoa beans.
PHILIPPE DESMAZES / AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
At the start of the intermediate marketing season, producers will sell their beans at 750 CFA francs per kilo instead of 1000 CFA francs last October.
The announcement was made by the Coffee and Cocoa Council, which manages the sector.
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The enthusiasm of Ivorian cocoa producers
lasted less than six months.
Last October, most of them appreciated the increase in the price of their beans, from 825 CFA francs to 1,000 CFA francs per kilo (from 1.30 to 1.50 euros per kilo).
The upturn did not survive the Covid-19 pandemic.
Consumer demand for chocolate has fallen.
By announcing the 25% drop 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, also adding another element: overproduction estimated at 100,000 tonnes. in Côte d'Ivoire, a country which usually supplies two million tonnes of cocoa, or 40% of world production.
Half of Ivorian planters below the poverty line
Forgotten, therefore, the prospect of a sufficiently remunerative price for planters in the long term.
Last October, the Ivory Coast and Ghana simultaneously announced the price of 1,000 CFA francs, after having obtained from the multinational chocolate companies a bonus of 400 dollars (340 euros) per tonne, called the “decent income differential”.
While specialists in the sector agree on the low remuneration for producers, some of them believe that the price of 1,000 CFA francs per kilo was too optimistic and that the announced price of 750 CFA francs (around 1 , 15 euro) is a return to reality.
An analysis that showered
the hopes of producers
.
According to the World Bank, one in two Ivorian cocoa farmers live below the poverty line.
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