Cocoa, kesako?
The cocoa tree produces around 80 pods a year, which take 4 to 6 months to ripen. Each one contains around forty seeds, which are fermented for 6 to 8 days, then cleaned and dried for two weeks in the sun to obtain cocoa beans. The beans are then sent to the factory for processing. The beans are roasted at around 120°C for 20 to 30 minutes to purify them of foreign bodies, before being crushed, ground and refined. The result is a cocoa paste which, after pressing, yields cocoa butter and cocoa powder. These are mixed with sugar and/or milk powder to produce chocolate, whether dark, milk or white. In Abidjan, there are two local chocolatiers who use 100% Ivorian cocoa with exotic flavors.
Suzanne's sweets. Suzanne Kabanni, West Africa's only female master chocolatier, offers more than 350 exotic-flavored chocolate references in her boutique: toasted coconut, gianduja, puffed rice, peanut and caramel, pistachio cream, coffee or vanilla, candied ginger praline, nougat, cashew nuts, ginger caramel, cinnamon hazelnut... Choice and originality.
Mon Choco. Unique in West Africa for its raw confectionery, organic cocoa beans are sun-dried, crushed by bicycle and packaged in recycled paper. Managed by a Franco-Ivorian woman, the 80% female team aims to highlight the work of planters, who are not always paid what they're worth. Chocolates with coconut milk caramel, sesame, cashew praline, passion ganache... the choice is mouth-watering.
The history of cocoa in Ivory Coast
The cocoa tree is native to South America and was imported to Africa by colonists in the 19th century. In 1939, production did not exceed 55,000 tonnes. It really took off under the impetus of Félix Houphouët-Boigny, himself a planter and founder of the first Ivorian farmers' union in 1944, before becoming Father of the Nation at independence in 1960. Production then tripled, reaching 300,000 tonnes in 1970. Historically developed in the south-east of the country (Abengourou, Akoupé), intensive production began in the south-west (Daloa, Soubré, San Pedro), attracting large numbers of people from the north of the country, as well as from Burkina Faso and Mali.
But in the early 1980s, cocoa prices collapsed, depriving the state of its redistributive capacity. In 1984, a drought ravaged 250,000 hectares of coffee and cocoa. In 1987, the country bought cocoa from farmers at double the market price. But Houphouët-Boigny was forced to suspend repayment of the country's $10 billion debt, then halve the purchase price of cocoa from farmers to bring it into line with the world price, breaking the de facto contract of trust he had signed with the farmers who formed his base. He decided to freeze exports in order to force up world prices. But he had to accept IMF and World Bank austerity plans, and downsize the civil service. In November 1989, he resigned himself to selling his huge stock of cocoa to the major traders, at half the price...
But the years of political and military crisis disrupted the industry until the political stabilization of the Ouattara era. In 2011, an initial reform put the State back at the center of the industry, encouraging investment in aging plantations, creating the Conseil Café Cacao, and reinstating a guaranteed minimum price and a system of early sale of 80% of the harvest.
The fair trade sector
Today, almost 200 fair trade cocoa cooperatives, bringing together over 120,000 producers, are certified. The label must meet three simple but indisputable criteria: no child labor, a decent minimum income for farmers, compliance with regulatory standards and transparency regarding the pesticides used. Fair trade (which, despite its progress, represents only 10% of national production) will total 150,000 tonnes in 2020, compared with 25 tonnes in 2004! Exporters and cooperatives receive a premium on top of the conventional price, ranging from 40 million to 250 million FCFA (60,000 to 380,000 euros). Two-thirds of these premiums go to the cooperative and exporters, and one-third to the villages, enabling the construction of schools and dispensaries, and the purchase of water pumps and solar panels to improve living conditions for farmers and their families. But fair-trade cocoa still accounts for only a marginal share of national production, and wages have not been increased.
A purchase price that is still too low
Cocoa currently accounts for 10% of Côte d'Ivoire's GDP, 40% of export earnings, employs one million producers and provides a livelihood for nearly 5 million people, directly and indirectly. More than 250,000 hectares are planted with cocoa, and San Pedro is the world's leading cocoa port.
In 2022, the governments of Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana (60% of world production between them) decided to suspend bean sales for the 2020 and 2021 harvests as long as traders, processors and chocolate makers refused to submit to a floor price of $2,600 per tonne. At the same time, the Conseil Café-Cacao (CCC), Côte d'Ivoire's industry regulator, decided to cap production at 2 million tonnes from 2020 onwards, in order to boost prices and set a floor price acceptable to producers, by halting the renewal of current plantations. In 2023, the price of a tonne of cocoa soared by 130% on the stock market, reaching $11,000 a tonne on the New York Stock Exchange in April (or 6,500 FCFA a kg), as production fell by over 30% due to poor weather conditions. But small producers are still very poorly remunerated. The selling price for them rose from 1,000 FCFA in 2023 to 1,800 FCFA per kilo in September 2024, compared with 4,500 FCFA in Cameroon, for example. The difference is due to a guaranteed price, even in the event of a fall in world prices, which is not the case in Cameroon. Small growers often live below the poverty line, and with the drop in yield, they also suffer a loss of profits. Many young Ivorians are unwilling to return to the family business, given how hard the work in the fields is and how little they earn in Côte d'Ivoire. Many small growers also prefer to sell their produce clandestinely in nearby Liberia, where they are better paid. A real societal problem.
