Disappointment as Ivory Coast keeps cocoa price unchanged

Ivory Coast will keep the farmgate price of cocoa unchanged for the crop's main harvest season, the country's agriculture minister announced.

The government will buy the crop at 1,200 CFA francs ($2.12) per kilo, the same amount announced in March for the mid-crop season, after months of crisis in the sector.

"It has been decided that a kilogram of well-fermented, well-dried, well-sorted cocoa will be purchased at the farm gate price of 1,200 francs per kilo," said Bruno Nabagne Kone, the Ivorian Minister of agriculture.

The announcement has left farmers who were hoping for a shift in the price disappointed.

Ivory Coast, the world's leading cocoa producer, in March cut the price paid to its growers by nearly 60 percent to try to address a sales slump affecting the sector.

"We were expecting the farm-gate price to go back up a bit, either to 2,000 or to 1,800; that was the hope. Unfortunately, it’s still stuck at 1,200. Well, they’re the ones who’ve done their calculations. Honestly, it’s a disappointment in a way. But what can we do about it?," asked Thibaut Yoro, a cocoa grower.

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 his re-election, President Alassane Ouattara announced himself that authorities were setting the price at a record high of 2,800 CFA francs a kilo.

But global cocoa prices, which went through the roof in 2024 before starting to drop in 2025, have plunged this year, meaning Ivorian cocoa cost much more than world market prices.