Ivory Coast has reassured farmers that it will continue with its programme to purchase a leftover stock of 100,000 metric tons of cocoa at the guaranteed price, the head of the country’s cocoa producers’ organisation said on Tuesday in an effort to ease rising tensions with farmers and cooperatives, Reuters reported.
In recent days, farmers had expressed worry that the stock‑buying programme, which was launched in late January to clear unsold beans and give farmers cash after a drop in global cocoa prices, might be stopped as the mid‑crop harvest begins earlier than normal.
According to data from the Agricultural Interprofessional Organization for Cocoa, about 23,000 tons have been bought since the programme began.
“I would like to reassure our fellow farmers and cooperative presidents that the government has given us guarantees that the programme will continue and that all the stock inventoried by the Coffee and Cocoa Council on January 15 and 16 will be fully purchased,” Siaka Diakite, president of the Agricultural Interprofessional Organization for Cocoa, told journalists on Tuesday at the CCC headquarters in Abidjan.
He said the remaining stock will be bought at the guaranteed price of 2,800 CFA francs (about $5.00).
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Last week, government and regulator sources told Reuters that authorities were considering cutting the mid‑crop farmgate price to between 800 and 1,000 CFA francs per kilogram from the 2,800 CFA francs paid for the main crop, raising further concern among farmers.
Several farmers and cooperatives, including groups in the western town of Duekoue and the port city of San Pedro, had threatened to strike and block trucks loaded with cocoa outside regional administrative buildings to protest a possible halt to the stock‑buying programme.
On Monday, Diakite criticised what he called administrative blockages by the CCC, saying it had refused to validate bills of lading that would allow cooperatives to deliver cocoa to Abidjan.
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Image Credit: Bloomberg
