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West African cocoa cartel battles with the traders
Cocoa beans drying in the sun in Ivory Coast. © Jürgen Bätz/DPA/picture-alliance/Newscom/MaxPPP

Running story
West African cocoa cartel battles with the traders

By jointly introducing a premium of $400 per tonne on cocoa beans in autumn 2020, Ivory Coast and Ghana were seeking to ensure that cocoa producers' revenues were maintained. In so doing, however, they sparked off an open war with the big commodity traders, who have since taken steps to get round the measure and avoid paying the premium. This battle of wills has paralysed a sector which has already been badly affected by Covid-19 and speeded up the transformation of the trading sector, encouraging Ghana and Ivory Coast to trade their cocoa beans on their own account.

West African cocoa cartel battles with the traders
Cocoa beans drying in the sun in Ivory Coast. © Jürgen Bätz/DPA/picture-alliance/Newscom/MaxPPP

Ivory Coast
Cocoa industry watchdog tightens price controls

With Ivorian traders accusing international firms of overpaying for their cocoa, the industry regulator, Conseil Café-Cacao, led by Yves Brahima Koné, is looking into the matter. The Groupement des Négociants Ivoiriens is also holding talks.

LogoSubscribers only Commodity traders 29.10.2024

Inner circles | Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria
Michel Arrion, the cocoa diplomat with a global network

Executive director of the International Cocoa Organisation since January 2019 and triumphantly re-elected last December, the Belgian ambassador has managed to revive an ageing body and open it up to the private sector and NGOs.

Michel Arrion, the executive director of the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO), in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on 15 May 2019.
LogoSubscribers only Commodity traders 07.06.2024
Michel Arrion, the executive director of the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO), in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on 15 May 2019.

Ivory Coast
Syngenta fails to thrive in Abidjan's agriculture sector

Syngenta, the leading Swiss crop protection and seed development specialist, which ChemChina acquired in 2017, is struggling to do business in the cocoa and banana sectors in Ivory Coast.

LogoSubscribers only Commodity traders 21.05.2024

Ivory Coast
Conseil Café-Cacao declares war on cocoa operators with Lebanese ties

Yves Koné, the head of the cocoa industry watchdog, has suspended the operations of several cooperatives that are suspected of buying and reselling beans above the regulated price.

Yves Brahima Koné, head of the Conseil Café-Cacao, in Abidjan on 2 April 2024.
Free access Commodity traders 17.05.2024
Yves Brahima Koné, head of the Conseil Café-Cacao, in Abidjan on 2 April 2024.

Ivory Coast
Conseil Café-Cacao to compensate exporters for unfulfilled contracts

The regulatory body has given in to traders' demands for compensation for cocoa purchasing contracts that were not executed during the season ending 31 March because of the poor harvest.

Ivorian minister of agriculture Kobenan Kouassi Adjoumani (left) and Yves Brahima Koné, director general of the Conseil Café-Cacao, in Abidjan, 2 April 2024.
LogoSubscribers only Commodity traders 13.05.2024
Ivorian minister of agriculture Kobenan Kouassi Adjoumani (left) and Yves Brahima Koné, director general of the Conseil Café-Cacao, in Abidjan, 2 April 2024.

Cameroon
Deforestation: Trade minister advocates for Cameroonian cocoa sector in Brussels

Trade Minister Luc Magloire Atangana visited Brussels from 19 to 26 April to defend the interests of the cocoa industry in Cameroon, which is a middleweight producer compared to heavyweights like Ivory Coast and Ghana.

LogoSubscribers only Commodity traders 07.05.2024

Ivory Coast
Coffee and cocoa board boss gives multinationals some respite

Yves Brahima Koné, the head of the Conseil Café-Cacao, has decided to calm relations between his organisation and exporters who have been unable to fulfil their contracts for the main harvest season.

LogoSubscribers only Commodity traders 10.04.2024

Ivory Coast
Cargill loses its cocoa pole position

The American trading giant is now only the third-largest exporter of beans from Ivory Coast.

LogoSubscribers only Commodity traders 14.03.2024

Ivory Coast
Cargill and Barry Callebaut cocoa plants may grind to halt

Most of the major traders had anticipated a production drop of between 20% and 25%. However, almost 50% of the volumes sold by the Conseil Café-Cacao will not materialise before the end of the 2023-2024 harvest.

LogoSubscribers only Commodity traders 02.02.2024

Ivory Coast
Local cocoa exporters are short of beans

Ivorian cocoa exporters like Africa Sourcing, Kineden and Ecookim have been unable to match the terms offered by the big international groups, who have tripled planters' bonuses. They have managed to execute only 40% of the contracts they signed for the 2023-2024 season.

LogoSubscribers only Commodity traders 12.12.2023

Ivory Coast
Abidjan bides time on tax incentives extension for local cocoa processing

Cocoa giants Cargill, Barry Callebaut and Olam, which have been investing heavily in industry in Ivory Coast since 2016, have still not received a guarantee from government that it will continue with a tax policy that favoured local processing.

LogoSubscribers only Commodity traders 06.12.2023

Ghana, Ivory Coast
Abidjan and Accra cross swords over cocoa

The difficult marketing campaign for the 2023-2024 harvest is undermining cooperation between the two West African giants in the sector.

LogoSubscribers only Commodity traders 05.12.2023

Ivory Coast
Cocoa regulator's credibility on line over 2023-2024 season

The cocoa selling season in Ivory Coast is turning into a fiasco for the Conseil Café Cacao, which traders have accused of promising non-existent quantities of beans.

Preparing bags of cocoa beans on an Ivorian farm, October 2023.
LogoSubscribers only Commodity traders 16.11.2023
Preparing bags of cocoa beans on an Ivorian farm, October 2023.

Ivory Coast
Cocoa: Abidjan faces boycott from trading giants after sales open

Having just opened advance sales for the 2024-2025 harvest, the Conseil Café Cacao is now facing a refusal from the major traders to match the prices set by Abidjan.

A farmer works with cocoa beans at a farm in Adzope town, southern Ivory Coast, 13 October 2023.
LogoSubscribers only Commodity traders 31.10.2023
A farmer works with cocoa beans at a farm in Adzope town, southern Ivory Coast, 13 October 2023.

Ivory Coast
On a visit to Brussels, Conseil Café Cacao revives battle with EU

Ivorian cocoa industry leaders have met European officials to demand recognition of their traceability system and an increase in the subsidy for sustainable cocoa. If it's not granted, they are threatening to continue blocking forward sales.

LogoSubscribers only Commodity traders 15.09.2023

Ivory Coast
Local cocoa firms battle for slice of sustainable beans pie

The Groupement des Négociants Ivoiriens (GNI), which brings together the main national cocoa traders in Ivory Coast, has undertaken to convince the government to introduce a mandatory percentage of certified sustainable beans in the 20% of international contracts reserved for them.

LogoSubscribers only Commodity traders 13.06.2023

Ivory Coast
Government steps in to protect cocoa trader Malick Tohé from Olam

The head of the Ivorian cocoa trading lobby and boss of SONEMAT, whose bank accounts were frozen by the Singaporean trader, appears to have friends in high places.

LogoSubscribers only Commodity traders 19.05.2023

Ivory Coast
Cargill granted extra cocoa beans quota

Despite the Cocoa and Coffee Council's decision in February to limit sales to large traders, the head of the US trading giant's regional office was able to bargain for an additional quota of around 10,000 tonnes of cocoa beans, of which Cargill is the Ivory Coast's largest exporter.

A farm worker with cacoa beans at a farm in Ivory Coast.
LogoSubscribers only Commodity traders 13.03.2023
A farm worker with cacoa beans at a farm in Ivory Coast.

In Focus | Ivory Coast
Loïc Folloroux, son of Ivorian first lady and behind-the-scenes cocoa trader

Loïc Folloroux, the son of Ivory Coast first lady Dominique Ouattara and owner of Africa Sourcing, has been an effective advocate and a major beneficiary of regulations favouring local players in the country's vital cocoa trade.

The discreet businessman Loïc Folloroux, son of First Lady Dominique Ouattara, has established himself in recent decades as the leading local bean trader.
LogoSubscribers only Commodity traders 30.01.2023
The discreet businessman Loïc Folloroux, son of First Lady Dominique Ouattara, has established himself in recent decades as the leading local bean trader.

Ivory Coast
As he tussles with cocoa giants, Ouattara turns to China

The Ivorian president is trying to steer Chinese industrial projects towards the cocoa sector so as to bypass the major international players with which Abidjan is at odds.

Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara in Abidjan on 7 January 2023.
LogoSubscribers only Commodity traders 16.01.2023
Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara in Abidjan on 7 January 2023.

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Cocoa beans drying in the sun in Ivory Coast.

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West African cocoa cartel battles with the traders

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