By Ivorian cocoa farmers ‘barely survive’ while chocolate company profits soarFarmers in Ivory Coast, the source of 45 percent of the world’s cocoa beans, battle climate change and market inequality.
“We have to check on our fruit daily. Every three months, it becomes ripe and we can harvest it. But harvest hasn’t been good at all lately,” he says.
Akoua has been a farmer for more than 40 years since he decided to leave a low-level administrative job in Abidjan, the country’s economic capital, to run a small piece of family land on the outskirts of his native Aboude.
Cacao – the plant whose pods are harvested into cocoa, eventually becoming chocolate – is an intricate agricultural product that is particularly vulnerable to its natural environment.
“I love cacao. It’s what I know best. But it’s very difficult to work with,” Akoua explains. “It gets contaminated by pests. It needs a perfect balance between rainfall and heat to thrive, otherwise, its roots get flooded and rot or they simply dry up. This means that we get fewer pods and fewer pods means fewer cacao beans.”
This is what has happened in recent years in the country, and increasingly so during the latest harvest season that began in October 2023.
The top cacao producers in the world – Ivory Coast followed by its neighbour, Ghana – have been severely affected by the El Nino weather pattern.
The climate phenomenon, characterised by warmer than average sea surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, has been bringing drier conditions to the West Africa region.
Additionally, climate change-induced hotter temperatures and altered rainfall patterns have further affected cocoa harvests.
“A few seasons ago, one hectare [2.5 acres] would yield about 600 kilos of cacao. Nowadays, it barely produces 300 kilos,” Akoua says.
We barely survive’
The struggle to make ends meet is not new.
“Cacao farming requires a lot of physical work and time. We can’t afford more manpower, so we [with the boys in the family] do everything ourselves,” Akoua says. “We barely survive doing all of this.”
But the everyday challenges are made more acute in a hugely unequal market where production shortfalls mean farmers struggle to make ends meet while surging chocolate prices help international companies’ profits to soar.
Also in Aboude village, farmer Christian Kouassi describes such hardships.
As a member of the agriculture union in the locality, he is concerned about cacao farmers getting a fair deal for the work they put in to harvesting.
Kouassi has been advocating for farmers to become a more proactive part of the sector’s value chain.
“We have absolutely no say in the price of the fruit that we produce. This has to change somehow. As a union, we’re concerned with making cacao more sustainable and producing it in a way that benefits the community,” he says.
The government recently raised the price for a kilogramme of cacao, it’s a good step. But more needs to be done to help us and our livelihoods,” he adds.
On April 2, Ivory Coast unveiled the new price for the mid-crop season spanning from April to September 2024. The price per kilogramme of cocoa beans is now set at 1500 CFA francs ($2.48), marking a 50 percent increase.
This record-high price followed the surge in prices on the New York Stock Exchange in February. Cacao prices hit a record high of $5,874 per tonne on the New York commodities market.
Price stabilisation
In 2021, Ivory Coast and Ghana introduced a premium of $400 per tonne known as the “decent income differential”. The purpose was to guarantee farmers a minimum income irrespective of fluctuations in the price of exported cocoa beans.
However, Ivorian cacao producers are still hopeful for further increases in the upcoming season.
In the West African country, government authorities, along with several regulatory bodies and institutions, play a pivotal role in determining the price of cocoa.
The Coffee-Cocoa Council (Conseil du Cafe Cacao) is the key entity tasked with regulating cocoa prices and supervising the cocoa industry in the nation.
Credit: Al Jazeera
