IVORY COAST: Despite recent introduction of stricter standards to reform the cocoa sector, farmers fear that corruption threatens to undermine their income

Record ID: 182236

  • Title: IVORY COAST: Despite recent introduction of stricter standards to reform the cocoa sector, farmers fear that corruption threatens to undermine their income
  • Date: 2nd November 2012
  • Summary: SAN PEDRO, IVORY COAST (FILE) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF WORKERS UNLOADING SACS OF COCOA FROM TRUCKS VARIOUS OF INTERIOR OF COCOA FACTORY
  • Embargoed: 17th November 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Cote d'Ivoire
  • Country: Ivory Coast
  • Topics: Business,Industry
  • Reuters ID: LVA344E0P28SUOP6BH28ZMYQKZMB
  • Story Text: Cocoa farmer Eugene Koffi Anzoua works in his field in the Brofodoume region in Ivory Coast, picking cocoa pods, drying and cleaning the beans, all in the name of quality.
    "A week after drying, we proceed to marketing our produce to buyers. If there is a co-operative, we deliver the goods to this which carries it to the port," Anzoua said.
    Ivory Coast, the world's biggest cocoa producer, recently introduced reform measures, which also set a guaranteed farmgate price of 725 CFA francs (1.4 USD) per kilogram of beans, marking the end of more than a decade of sector liberalisation that saw a general decline in quality.
    But many cocoa farmers in Ivory Coast fear that buyers and other industry middle-men will not adhere to the new fixed price.
    "Currently the price of cocoa is fixed at 725 CFA ( 1.4 USD) per kilogramme, well as we are in a crisis situation, buyers are no longer able to buy at normal price and each person comes and buys at his own price," said Anzoua.
    According to the head of Ivory Coast's marketing board, the Coffee and Cocoa Council (CCC), the cocoa bean quality has improved during the country's recently opened 2012/13 cocoa season due to stricter standards introduced under a reform of the sector.
    Under the new scheme, the middle men responsible for collecting from plantations and delivering to the ports the bulk of Ivorian cocoa production can no longer pass along the cost of bribes to farmers in the form of lower prices for beans.
    While the reforms aim to improve farmer incomes and encourage reinvestment in ageing plantations, the CCC also hopes the guaranteed price and new stricter quality standards will also push growers to develop better drying and fermentation practices.
    Agronomists recommend farmers ferment beans for six days and then dry them for another six days. However exporters say in practice the entire process is now often completed in as little as four days.
    Farmers blame the decline in quality in recent years on pressure from middle men.
    Cocoa merchants, who collect the bulk of Ivorian cocoa production from the bush and deliver it to the ports, have already complained that poor roads and bribes at illegal roadblocks are cutting into their profits.
    They now say that the new measures to improve quality will slow down buying, meaning it will take longer to collect produce from farms.
    "All buyers who go to the cocoa farmer must respect the fixed price. Generally speaking, those buyers truly make profit and down the farmers. I think that measures have been taken to respect these prices," said Ali Fadiga, Deputy Commander to the Chief of the Port of San Pedro, where 70 percent of Ivory Coast cocoa is exported from.
    While praised by international partners as a way to encourage reinvestment in ageing plantations, the new government-led system was marred from the onset by running disputes with merchants and exporters over cost reimbursements from the state.
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