Kakaobønder får højere priser – bl.a. takket være IMF og Verdensbanken

ABIDJAN, 21 November 2011 (IRIN): Income for cocoa farmers in Ivory Coast is expected to rise after reforms announced by President Alassane Ouattara’s government in early November.

Producers should then receive 50-60 percent of the international cocoa price for their beans, rather than the 35 percent they get today, according to Minister of Agriculture Mamadou Sangafowa Coulibaly.

The international price, also termed the Cost, Insurance and Freight (CIF) price – where the seller pays the costs, freight and insurance to get the goods to the destination port – refers to the price of cocoa that is ready for export.

The government is making these reforms as a result of conditions set by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which will allow it to gain access to 3 billion US dollar of debt relief (gældslettelse) under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative.

Minister of Economy Charles Koffi Diby said on 8 November that the government plans to put the reforms in place before the end of 2011, and is expecting debt relief to be approved before the end of 2012.

Cocoa brought Ivory Coast 1 billion dollar in foreign exchange receipts in 2006, compared to 1,3 billion from oil and other refined products, according to the IMF.

The West african country produces around 40 percent of the world’s cocoa and delivered a record harvest of nearly 1,5 million tons of beans in 2010-2011.

Some 900.000 farmers in Ivory Coast grow cocoa, and 3,5 million people live off the income generated by related activities, according to the World Bank.

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