Ivory Coast has increased its cocoa farmgate price by 11.1% from 900FCFA to 1,000FCFA ($1.62) per kilogram for the 2023/24 crop season.

The minister for agriculture and rural development, Kobenan Kouassi Adjoumani, also announced the new farmgate price for coffee as 900 CFA francs/kg, representing a 20% raise.

Ivory Coast, the world’s leading producer of cocoa beans faces a 20% drop in production in the wake of bad weather and disease.

Production for the just-ended 2022/23 season is expected to total about 1.8 million metric tons, down from an average of about 2.25 million tons annually in recent years.

But ahead of the announcement of the opening of the 2023/24 season, the country’s cocoa farmers had mounted advocacy for a significant raise in the farmgate.

The Ivorian Platform for Sustainable Cocoa (PICD), the official mouthpiece of cocoa producers, said farmers are expecting nothing short of a 44.44% increase in the current farmgate price of 900FCFA per kilogram.

“Given the strategic role of cocoa in our economy, and also considering price trends on the international market over the last few months, producers are expecting a minimum price of 1,300FCFA ($2.12) per kilogram for the main 2023/24 season,” said PICD in a statement copied to Cocoa Post.

The expected farmgate price of the Ivory Coast cocoa farmers is equivalent to $137.8 per bag of 65kg of cocoa beans.

The current farmgate price for cocoa which was the equivalent of $1.33 per kilogram at the time of announcement in October 2022 represented a 9% rise over the previous season’s 825FCFA, a price the farmers noted as unimpressive.

The Ivorian Platform for Sustainable Cocoa (PICD) is a network of cocoa producer organisations and non-profit non-governmental organisations. It comprises 55 cocoa farmer cooperatives and 11 Non-Governmental Organisations.

Ivory Coast is the world’s top cocoa producer, and along with neighbouring Ghana produces about two-thirds of the world’s supply.

Last month, Ghana announced a 63.6% increase in its producer price for the 2023/24 cocoa season pegged at GHS1308.99 ($113) per 64kg bag.

President Akufo Addo said the unprecedented price hike is targeted at tackling smuggling as well as safeguarding the interest of cocoa farmers.

The price disparity between Ghana’s cocoa producer price and those of its neighbours Ivory Coast and Togo has been fingered as driving cross-border smuggling.

Ghana, the second-largest cocoa producer, is projected to have its 2022/23 crop plummet to 650,000 metric tons from a recent average of 800,000 metric tons in recent years due to CSSVD disease.

The slump in production in the two neighbouring West African countries has impacted the global supply of the commodity, a situation that has driven up cocoa futures to 46-year highs.

The International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO) says the developments at the production end are said to increase the upward pressure on prices in the world market.

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