Ivory Coast to buy entire stockpile of cocoa beans as stocks pile up

Ivory Coast says it will buy the entire volume of cocoa stockpiled by the country’s cooperatives in order to ensure producers are paid. The news comes as cocoa fell to its lowest price in two years.

The cocoa industry accounts for 14 percent of Ivory Coast’s GDP but slowing exports have left stocks piling up.

Now the government is stepping in.

"The chosen strategy is simple and effective," Kobenan Kouassi Adjoumani, Ivory Coast Minister of Agriculture, said on Tuesday.

"The government will primarily rely on credible, solid and structured national operators, who will conduct purchasing and collection operations in collaboration with their traditional partners, notably shredders, multinationals and international exporters."

Ivory Coast is the world’s largest cocoa producer and one in five people in the country relies on the industry to make a living. In recent months, cocoa prices have fallen by about $5 a kilo.

A surge in the price of cocoa in late 2024 saw manufacturers cut back on the use of chocolate and exports have fallen to Europe and Asia.