Côte d’Ivoire faces 100,000 tonnes of cocoa bean build-up as demand slows

A pandemic-induced slowdown in global chocolate demand has led to an accumulation of around 100,000 tonnes of cocoa beans in the interior of Côte d’Ivoire, five exporters have told Reuters as farmers struggle to get by with prices below promises.

The junk stock comes on top of a growing stock of beans at the ports of the world’s largest cocoa producer after chocolate makers and buyers in Europe and the United States requested that deliveries scheduled for October-December be postponed to January-March, the exporters said.

The 100,000 tonnes of beans stranded in farms and cooperatives represent about a third of Côte d’Ivoire’s monthly production at this time of year.

With fewer shipments leaving the West African nation, the regulator, the Coffee and Cocoa Council (CCC), has suspended a cooperative bean registration system to slow flows from the countryside, a source said. at the CCC to Reuters.

“It’s a vicious circle,” said a director of an Abidjan-based international export company, speaking on condition of anonymity. “We don’t have enough room to continue buying cocoa and storing it. If we were to resume exports to Europe and the United States now, there would be room here. “

The delays are keenly felt by farmers, who are struggling to sell their beans at the fixed minimum of 1,000 CFA francs ($ 1.82) per kg.

In the western Soubre region, in the heart of the cocoa belt, a cooperative in the village of Gnipi 2 was sitting on 250 tonnes of beans, its manager said. The manager of another cooperative there had 200 tons in storage, and more crammed into trucks by the side of the road, according to a Reuters witness.

As flows to the coast are blocked, cooperatives lack cash and space to buy more beans from farmers.

“Since December, they have stopped and no longer pay,” explains Philippe Ipou Kouadio, a village chief who cultivates 40 hectares in the Soubre region.

“We cannot pay for our children’s schooling.”

The exporters did not indicate which of their international buyers requested to postpone shipments. Chocolatiers such as Mars Inc, Hershey and Barry Callebaut buy Ivorian cocoa.

($ 1 = 548.5700 CFA francs)