After soaring for two years, cocoa prices have largely fallen back this year, but without any impact on chocolate prices, just days before the holiday season. Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana are the main suppliers of cocoa pods—the fruit of the cacao tree—from which the cocoa beans used to make chocolate are extracted. These two West African countries account for more than half of global production, with most of the remainder coming from Nigeria, Cameroon, as well as Ecuador, Indonesia, and Brazil.
Côte d’Ivoire, the world’s leading cocoa producer, on Wednesday, cut the price paid to its growers by nearly 60 percent, the government said, in a bid to address a sales slump affecting the sector.
Agriculture Minister Bruno Kone announced the reduction to 1,200 CFA francs a kilo ($2, 1.82 euros) — which comes amid a fall in world cocoa prices and an oversupply crisis.
“The price of cocoa on the international market is forcing us to make an adjustment,” Kone said.
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The Ivorian government sets the price of cocoa paid to its producers twice a year. Its latest pricing announcement comes a month earlier than normal.
The sector accounts for 14 percent of the West African country’s gross domestic product, and around five million people depend on it for their living.
In October, just ahead of an election won by President Alassane Ouattara, authorities set the price at a record high of 2,800 CFA francs a kilo.
But, global cocoa prices, which went through the roof in 2024 and started to drop in 2025, have plunged this year, meaning Ivorian cocoa has recently cost much more than world market prices.
“We would all have liked a better price, but you have all followed the trend in the international price,” the minister said on Wednesday.
AFP
