Ivory Coast Farmers Welcome 50% Raise in Farmgate Price

The Ivorian Platform for Sustainable Cocoa (PICD), an umbrella group for cocoa cooperatives and civil society organisations, has welcomed the 50% increment in the cocoa farmgate price.

The Ivorian government and the regulator Conseil du Cafe Cacao (CCC) announced on Tuesday an upward review of the farmgate price from 1,000 to 1,500 CFA francs per kilogramme for the 2023/24 immediate season spanning April to September 2024.

The farmgate price increment represents 64% of the CIF price for the advance sale of the harvest from April to September 2024.

The Ivorian cocoa farmers cooperatives and CSOs making up the PICD endorsed the new price, calling it “a step in the right direction towards improving the incomes of cocoa producers and ensuring the collaboration of all stakeholders.”

But in spite of the positive development, the group has repeated calls for a national dialogue to develop a sustainable internal cocoa marketing mechanism that reflects what they term the “new context of the cocoa sector.”

“It is about conceptualising a mechanism which, through its flexibility, would be able to adapt to substantial positive or negative changes in the world market,” said PICD.

Because beyond the price set, the issue remains the ability of our sales mechanism to adapt to world market conditions while continuing to protect producers’ income.

The Ivorian Platform for Sustainable Cocoa assured of its willingness to work with the authorities to improve the livelihoods of producers and promote a better-structured collaborative movement for sustainable cocoa in Cote d’Ivoire.

Meanwhile, industry watchers are of the opinion that the price adjustment could contribute positively to plugging leakages that were impacting port arrivals.

Ivory Coast and Ghana, the world’s largest cocoa producers, have seen an unprecedented decline in cocoa arrivals at ports due to poor harvests attributed to unfavourable weather, disease, and smuggling.

The situation has occasioned a global cocoa supply shortfall in the last couple of years, pushing cocoa prices to an all-time high of $10,000 per tonne on the world market last Tuesday.

In its monthly Cocoa Market Report for February, the ICCO sounded alarmed at the unprecedented price rally, citing potential ramifications for producers, companies, and consumers worldwide.

“High cocoa prices remain a significant concern due to a supply shortfall from key producers in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, resulting in a 28% and 35% decrease in arrivals at Ivorian and Ghanaian ports, respectively, compared to the previous season.”