Cocoa farmgate prices in Ivory Coast's cocoa regions were firm to higher last week, pushed up in the east by smuggling to Ghana, supported in the west by competition for beans and holding firm elsewhere, farmers said. Ivory Coast set a non-binding pre-season indicative price of 1,000 CFA francs ($2) per kg but farmgate prices have remained stubbornly low, making the guaranteed $2 per kilo Ghana offers more attractive to some in the east.
In the eastern region of Abengourou, farmers said Ghanaian buyers were buying cocoa beans at between 850 and 900 CFA francs per kg while the local price was at 700 CFA francs. "Who can stop the smuggling here? The Ghanaians are paying good money so it will continue," said farmer Joseph Amani. Amani said the rate at which beans were being smuggled to Ghana made him think smuggling this year would be greater than last year.
There is a long history of bean smuggling between the world's top two cocoa growers but the exact volumes are tricky to pin down. As much as 200,000 tonnes of Ivorian cocoa was believed to have been smuggled out through neighbouring countries during the last cocoa season, much of it to Ghana. Authorities in Accra have sought to play down volumes.
Ivory Coast's new government has said it will crack down on the trade. But a story this week in Fraternite Matin, the government daily, said hundreds of trucks were ferrying beans into Ghana every day. According to the newspaper, which cited members of a body tasked with fighting smuggling, Abengourou produces between 75,000 and 80,000 tonnes per season but only about half reaches Ivorian ports due to smuggling to Ghana.