Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana Suspend Cocoa Sales and Demand a Minimum Price

Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire have suspended forward sales of cocoa beans for the 2020/21 season as buyers and sellers prepare to discuss a minimum price proposal, industry sources said.

The two West African countries account for nearly two-thirds of world production, but they have only limited influence over international cocoa prices, which have stayed low in recent years because of overproduction.

Representatives of the world's two largest cocoa producers are meeting in Accra, Ghana's capital, to discuss farmers' living standards. The governments are proposing a common floor price intended to raise farmers' incomes. They complain that their price is extremely low compared with that of the big cocoa traders.

The two countries agreed earlier this year to harmonise their sales system, with the aim of having more influence over international prices.

The Ivorian Coffee-Cocoa Council (CCC) and Ghana's Cocobod proposed a minimum price of US$2,600 for the main crop on Tuesday and asked that sales contracts below that threshold be compensated with a living income differential.

Some traders suggested that the proposed price would be unacceptable to big buyers, whose market dominance gives them considerable leverage in the expected negotiations.