Ivory Coast’s cocoa regulator, the Coffee-Cocoa Council (CCC), has announced a package of measures aimed at defusing mounting tensions among cocoa farmers who say they are struggling to sell their harvest at viable prices amid a piling up of unsold beans in warehouses across the world’s largest cocoa-producing nation.
The intervention comes as global cocoa prices have swung dramatically, creating a complex and at times contradictory situation: while international prices surged to historic highs in recent seasons, many Ivorian farmers have found themselves unable to find buyers for their beans, raising questions about the effectiveness of the country’s marketing systems and price stabilisation mechanisms.
## Farmers Caught in a Squeeze
Ivory Coast produces roughly 2 million tonnes of cocoa annually—about 40 percent of global supply—and its cocoa sector supports the livelihoods of an estimated 6 million people, from smallholder farmers to transporters, warehouse workers, and exporters.
Farmers in rural Ivory Coast have reported that despite high world prices, the fixed farmgate price set by the government—designed to ensure farmers receive a stable minimum—has in practice been hard to sustain, with buying agents sometimes reluctant to purchase at official rates when world market conditions shift.
The accumulation of unsold stock in recent weeks has raised alarm bells in farming communities. Cooperatives have written to the CCC warning of mounting financial pressure on farmers who incurred debts to finance their harvests and now find themselves unable to liquidate their stock.
## Regulatory Response
The CCC’s measures include an emergency buying programme under which the regulator itself will purchase beans from farmers unable to find private buyers, an accelerated payment system to speed up settlements, and a temporary increase in the farmgate price to encourage greater uptake from licensed buyers.
A CCC statement acknowledged that ‘market conditions have created temporary imbalances that require regulatory intervention to protect the interests of producers and the sustainability of the sector.’
## Broader Challenges in the Cocoa Sector
Ivory Coast’s cocoa sector faces structural pressures that go beyond short-term price volatility. Aging trees, climate variability, and the encroachment of farming into protected forest areas have all raised long-term concerns about the sustainability of the country’s cocoa production.
Meanwhile, global chocolate makers have faced mounting pressure from consumers and regulators in Europe and North America to ensure that cocoa supply chains are free from child labour and deforestation. Ivory Coast has made commitments on both fronts, but implementation remains uneven.
The CCC’s intervention is aimed at getting through the current season without major disruption to farmer incomes, while officials work on longer-term reforms to make the sector more responsive and transparent.