top of page
Moving People

News

Ghana and Ivory Coast lift threat to suspend cocoa supplies

  • France24
  • Jul 17, 2019
  • 2 min read

Ivory Coast and Ghana, the world's two largest cocoa producers, have ended a threat to stop selling their production in what was a push for higher prices.

In what they called a "historic" move, the two West African neighbours on June 12 vowed to suspend the sale of their 2020/2021 production to buyers unwilling to meet a minimum price of $2,600 per tonne, a move that shook the cocoa market.

The two African nations -- which together account for 60 percent of the world's production -- are campaigning to end a situation where cocoa producers make only $6 billion in a global chocolate market worth around $100 billion.

"The two countries decided to lift the suspension of sales of the 2020/2021 crop from today July 16," the chief of Ivory Coast's coffee and cocoa council, Yves Kone-Brahima, and Joseph Boahen Aidoo, chief executive of the Ghana Cocoa Board, said in a joint statement Tuesday.

At a meeting in Ivory Coast's commercial capital Abidjan on July 3, the two countries introduced a so-called Living Income Differential of $400 per tonne.

The differential would kick in for export contracts for the 2020/2021 crop if market prices fell below $2,600 a tonne.

A World Bank report released last week said Ivory Coast, the world's largest producer, earns just a fraction of the crop's potential value, and that 55 percent of cocoa producers live on about 757 CFA francs ($1.3 / 1.15 euros) a day, which is below the poverty line.

Cocoa accounts for 40 percent of the nation's exports but the country only earns about eight percent of total profits in the cocoa-chocolate sector.

Almost 80 percent of the sector's profits are concentrated in the processing of chocolate paste and in the distribution of finished products to consumers, "two phases in which Ivory Coast does not yet play a major role", the report said.


Comments


construction-image1.jpg

Subscribe and keep up to date with all the latest news from Oakmark

Subtle Shapes Transparent
WEST AFRICA'S NO.1 ECONOMIC AGENTS

Oakmark Global Vision provides a bespoke business package to established corporate bodies, investors, and entrepreneurs who desire to enter the West & Pan African market. Find out more >

© 2025 Oakmark Global Vision Ltd - All Rights Reserved.

UK Company No. 07634879 / Nigeria Company No. RC 1288232

Regional Office

International Office

1 Kandi Close, Off Aminu Kano

Crescent, Wuse 2, Abuja F.C.T

Nigeria 

+234 -(0)- 929 207 02

+234 (0) 704 497 6500

info@oakmarkglobalvision.com

King Court, 17 School Road

Hall Green, Birmingham

United Kingdom  B28, 8JG

+44 (0) 121 244 1814

+44 (0) 746 625 2505

info@oakmarkglobalvision.com

 Oakmark Global Vision Limited

bottom of page