Ivory Coast seizes 100 tons of cocoa at the border with Guinea

According to the managing director of Ivory Coast’s Coffee and Cocoa Council (CCC), the national police managed to seize three trucks carrying 1,500 bags of cocoa beans at the border with Guinea.

The low farmgate prices in Ivory Coast have made it a target for smugglers from neighbouring countries where beans fetch higher prices due to the rise in global prices, with a kilogram of cocoa costing between 1,600 CFA francs and 1,700 CFA francs ($2.63-$2.80) in Guinea and Liberia compared to 1,000 CFA francs in Ivory Coast.

Global cocoa prices have reached record highs, leading to concerns about a bean deficit this season and the next, fueling a scramble for beans and smuggling in the cocoa growing regions.

The CCC reported collaborating with security forces to seize 100 tons of cocoa, with the trucks being stopped in the town of Sipilou, 4 km (2.5 miles) from Guinea.

“We have made a firm commitment to reduce cocoa smuggling to neighbouring countries this year, and we are determined to succeed in this mission,” said CCC CEO Yves Brahima Kone.

Ivory Coast and neighbouring Ghana have said smuggling hampers their effort to meet their yearly production target, with the CCC promising to tackle the issue last October.

Cocoa buyers in Ivory Coast have stated that despite the high price of cocoa in neighbouring countries compared to Ivory Coast, there is less leakage of beans out of Ivory Coast, making it harder for people to smuggle cocoa out.

One cocoa buyer emphasized that cocoa producers earn nothing from smuggling and the middlemen pocket all the money.

($1 = 607.2500 CFA francs)

(Reporting by Ange Aboa; Writing by Anait Miridzhanian; Editing by Bate Felix and Frances Kerry)