Ouagadougou: Synap CI and Anaproci, the main cocoa bean producer organizations in Côte d’Ivoire, the world’s leading supplier of this product, have asked the authorities to increase prices purchase. This is what radio RFI reports.
The Ivorian Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Food recently set the purchase price of cocoa beans at 1,500 West African francs ($2.50) per kilo. Producer organizations believe that these prices do not allow farmers to build up a sufficient margin of safety in the event of loss of the harvest. Koffi Kang, director of Anaproci, said prices should be raised to 2,500 West African francs ($4) per kilo.
They were supported by political parties. Thus, Simon Doho, of the Democratic Party of Côte d’Ivoire, declared that “more than 80% of our cocoa producers lived below the poverty line, while the country supplied 40% of the world’s cocoa beans.”
The example of Ivory Coast is followed by Ghana, the world’s second largest exporter of cocoa beans (2.2 million tonnes per year and
822,000 tonnes respectively). Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo recently ordered a 58.2% increase in procurement prices from 20,928 cedis ($1,560) per tonne to 33,120 ($2,460) per tonne by the end of the season. 2023-2024. Ghana represents 15% of global cocoa bean production.
Recently, cocoa bean futures prices on the global market reached record highs due to the spread of plant diseases and poor weather conditions, Just Food reported. Global market supplies are expected to decline by around 8% in the 2023-2024 season. Over the past 12 months, cocoa bean prices have increased by 166% and 189% on the New York and London futures markets respectively, according to GlobalData. The global harvest for the 2023-2024 season is forecast at 4.5 million tonnes, a decrease of 340,000 tonnes compared to the previous season.
Source: Burkina Information Agency