Ivory Coast and Ghana are known as the world’s largest cocoa producers, producing around 60% of the world’s cocoa. According to the Ivorian government, the two counties have created a joint body to improve coordination in research, price setting and the fight against child labour.
The Ivory Coast-Ghana Cocoa Initiative (ICCIG) will promote their cocoa industries internationally and defend their collective position in the global market. The two countries have coordinated on some of those issues before, but the new organisation marks a formal step towards closer ties.
The organisation will also allow the two countries to formalise an agreement started three years ago whereby they both announce farmgate prices at the start of the growing season on Oct. 1, a measure aimed at reducing smuggling across their shared border.
Last year they raised the guaranteed price they pay cocoa farmers to around $1.50 per kilogramme for the 2019/20 main crop harvest. They also introduced a minimum price floor to address a perceived imbalance between farmers’ incomes and money made by big commodities traders.
