Ivory Coast advances cocoa mid-crop and cuts farmer prices amid surplus shock

Thursday 26 February 2026 - 14:50

By: Dakir Madiha

Ivory Coast advances cocoa mid-crop and cuts farmer prices amid surplus shock

Ivory Coast will bring forward the start of its cocoa mid-crop season and sharply lower the price paid to farmers, in an unprecedented move to ease a mounting surplus that has clogged warehouses and ports across the country. Cocoa harvested from March will now be classified as mid-crop instead of main crop, with the guaranteed farmgate price expected to fall to between 800 and 1,000 CFA francs per kilogram, a steep reduction from the record 2,800 CFA francs set for the 2025–26 main crop. The decision, approved by an interministerial committee on raw materials, aims to make Ivorian beans competitive again on world markets after a collapse in global prices left exporters unwilling to buy at current domestic levels.

The crisis dates back to October 2025, when the government lifted the main crop farmgate price to a historic high ahead of presidential elections, just as international cocoa prices began to tumble. Since then, benchmark prices on global exchanges have fallen far enough that Ivorian cocoa has become too expensive for major traders, prompting several multinationals to halt purchases and leaving local intermediaries unable to honour contracts. Industry officials and traders estimate that without a price cut, unsold stocks could reach around 200,000 metric tons by the end of March, on top of hundreds of thousands of tons already stuck inland and at ports. The farmers’ union Synapci has warned that as much as 700,000 tons of cocoa remained unsold at one point this season, forcing some producers to go weeks without income and others to offload beans at distressed prices or let them rot.

To prevent a complete breakdown in the supply chain, the government has already intervened with emergency support for both exporters and growers. Officials say the state is effectively subsidizing exporters by 1,000 to 2,000 CFA francs per kilogram so that beans can be shipped at lower international prices while farmers still receive the official farmgate rate, a mechanism insiders concede is fiscally unsustainable if maintained for long. In late January, the Coffee and Cocoa Council launched a programme to buy 100,000 tons of surplus cocoa at the guaranteed seasonal price, a roughly 500 million dollar operation designed to clear stockpiles and inject cash into rural communities. The council has indicated that Ivory Coast now has greater storage capacity and local processing facilities, which it hopes will offer more flexibility in managing future price swings.

The reshaping of the cocoa calendar marks a significant change in how the world’s top producer manages its dual-season crop. Traditionally, the main crop runs from October to March, with the smaller, lower-quality mid-crop spanning April to September and largely destined for domestic grinders at a discount. Under the new plan, the mid-crop will begin a month earlier, on March 1, and end in late August, effectively shortening the main crop and pushing a larger volume of beans into the lower-priced segment of the season. Government sources say the adjustment is intended to align official pricing more rapidly with market conditions and mirror practices in neighbouring Ghana.

Ghana, the world’s second-largest cocoa producer, has already responded to the price slump by cutting its farmgate price by 28.6 percent for the rest of the 2025–26 season. The government in Accra announced in mid-February that farmers would now receive 41,392 cedis per ton, down from 58,000 cedis, arguing that the move was necessary to restore competitiveness after world prices fell. The parallel actions in Ivory Coast and Ghana, which together produce around half of global cocoa, highlight the pressure facing African exporters as the market transitions from recent record highs to a projected surplus. Analysts say a strong 2025–26 harvest, aided by favourable weather and government interventions, could deepen the glut unless prices adjust enough to stimulate demand and clear inventories.

For farmers in Ivory Coast, the policy shift means immediate pain but potentially greater market access if the price reset encourages buyers back into the market. Many growers have already endured months of uncertainty, as cooperatives filled their warehouses and stopped taking new deliveries when they could no longer secure export contracts at profitable levels. Officials insist that advancing the mid-crop and revising the price now, instead of waiting until late March or early April as in previous years, will help avert a deeper rural cash crunch and stabilise the sector ahead of the next main crop. The government has promised to unveil the final mid-crop farmgate price by the end of February, giving traders and producers a clearer signal of how the rest of the season will unfold.