Ivory Coast to buy 100,000 tonnes of surplus cocoa as falling prices trigger market intervention 

IVORY COAST – Ivory Coast’s Coffee and Cocoa Council (CCC) will buy 100,000 metric tonnes of surplus cocoa to stabilise the market and protect farmers’ incomes, Agriculture Minister Kobenan Kouassi Adjoumani has said.  

The move follows a sharp build-up of unsold stocks after the government raised the fixed farmgate price for the 2025/26 main crop to a record 2,800 CFA francs per kilogram, keeping more cocoa inside the country and attracting inflows from neighbouring producers. 

“We have approximately 123,000 tonnes of cocoa in stock with the producers, but I think we will need to purchase around 100,000 tonnes in the coming days,” Adjoumani said.  

He explained that the higher domestic price had discouraged cross-border smuggling out of Ivory Coast while encouraging cocoa from Ghana, Liberia and Guinea to move into the country.  

“As a result, cocoa that would have ordinarily been diverted to neighbouring Liberia and Ghana has stayed in the country, and some production from those countries has been transported to Ivory Coast, fuelling the surplus,” he said. 

The government plans to strengthen border security to curb inflows. “We will ramp up border security measures to stop the influx of cocoa from Ghana, Liberia and Guinea,” Adjoumani said.  

Unlike most African producers, Ivory Coast controls cocoa sales through the CCC, selling about 85% of the harvest forward at a fixed price to protect farmers from market volatility and guarantee stable incomes. 

Cocoa prices reached record highs in 2024, and in October 2025 the council set a record forward price of about US$5,000 per tonne, boosting expectations ahead of the presidential election.  

However, global prices have since fallen to around US$4,630 per tonne, leading multinational buyers to refuse to purchase the remaining 15% of the crop. “Declining cocoa prices have also slowed purchases by exporters,” Adjoumani said. 

The surplus has caused congestion at ports such as San Pedro, where trucks carrying cocoa have been unable to unload.  

“Our objective is to protect producers’ income and the country’s social stability, and the government is mobilised to resolve this issue,” Adjoumani said, adding that the new purchasing mechanism would apply only to the main crop season.  

He confirmed that “the CCC sold 85% of its production before the main crop harvest began,” underscoring the scale of the remaining unsold volumes. 

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