In Côte d'Ivoire, the coronavirus pandemic continues to weigh on the marketing of cocoa. Between slowing global demand and falling prices, players in the sector are struggling to sell their stocks.

In Côte d'Ivoire, the puzzle of the cocoa sector continues. Already under pressure in recent months, the authorities must now manage a stock of 100,000 tonnes of beans at the level of cooperatives and producers due to the drop in global demand linked to the coronavirus.

This volume represents about a third of the country's monthly production at this stage of the campaign. With the global pandemic, cocoa prices remained at half mast in 2020, even crossing at the beginning of last July, the lowest level since the last quarter of 2018.

According to sources interviewed by Reuters, the poor global economy has already led several European and American manufacturers to reschedule their October-December deliveries over the January-March period. A situation that could further increase the stocks in the bean storage points in the export ports of Abidjan and San Pedro.

“The delays are hard on producers who are struggling to sell their cocoa at the minimum price of 1,000 CFA francs per kilogram. In Soubré, in the heart of the cocoa belt, a cooperative in the village of Gnipi 2 is facing a pile of 250 tonnes of beans,” says an exporter who requested anonymity.

In Côte d'Ivoire, cocoa production is expected to once again cross the 2 million ton mark in 2020/2021.