The price for the October-to-September season, which opens on Monday, is up from 700 CFA francs during the 2017/18 season but 50 to 100 CFA francs lower than the expected farmgate price in neighbouring Ghana, which exports higher quality beans, the sources said.

Ivory Coast and Ghana together account for about 60 percent of global cocoa production. They plan to jointly announce their farmgate prices over the weekend as part of a new collaboration meant to boost international prices.

A report by analysts at Fitch Solutions on Thursday cast doubt on the two countries' ability to significantly affect world markets because of differences between their marketing systems and low levels of domestic processing.

One CCC source said the narrow gap between the two farmgate prices would nevertheless deter smuggling to Ghana, which has distorted production data and bled Ivory Coast's revenues in previous seasons.