Côte d’Ivoire Cocoa Buyback Crisis Deepens as Defaults and Surplus Pressures Build

Latest reports out of the country add clarity to the scale of disruption behind the Ivorian cocoa buyback programme. As global prices fell sharply from their 2024 highs, local traders defaulted on at least 100,000 tonnes of main crop purchase contracts, reflecting a widening mismatch between the government’s fixed farmgate price and declining international market levels.

This breakdown in execution contributed to a build-up of unsold stocks – estimated at up to 200,000 tonnes by end-March when including remaining harvest volumes – prompting the government-backed intervention to absorb excess supply and restore liquidity to the system.