Unsold bags of cocoa beans are stacked almost to the ceiling in Sekou Dagnogo's warehouse in Ivory Coast's western Duekoue town, where his cooperative is struggling to sell to exporters following a fall in global cocoa prices.
Exporters have been refusing to pay the guaranteed 2,800 CFA francs ($5.09) per kg farmgate price the government set at the start of the 2025/26 crop season, according to cooperatives. The exporters say the slump in global prices , which hit their lowest levels in more than two years last week due to falling demand, has made cocoa from the world's largest producer too expensive.
Dagnogo said he relies on the export sales to pay farmers but now unsold stock is piling up and debts are accumulating.
"Things haven't been going well for quite some time now, so everything is at a standstill for the moment and we currently owe farmers a lot of money," he told Reuters during a recent trip to Duekoue.
Dagnogo's hope is that the Coffee and Cocoa Council regulator will step in to buy the unsold bags.
In January, the regulator launched a programme to purchase 100,000 metric tons of cocoa beans that had been held for weeks and was forced to accelerate the purchases earlier this month on concerns about the declining quality of inventories stored in poor conditions.
"They have assured us that they will buy back the product," Dagnogo said.