Cocoa growers rue 'curse of brown gold'

Laurent Kone's wattle-and-daub house, with its tarpaulin roof and no electricity, lies down a bumpy red-earth track in western Ivory Coast.

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BAD STATE. A teacher gives lessons to children of cocoa producers in a classroom without electricity.

For 30 years, he has been growing cocoa and is typical of the smallholders who have been the backbone in making the west African country the world’s leading producer of the crop.

But the country currently faces major difficulties in selling its cocoa, hit by a slowdown in exports amid buyers' liquidity problems and a drop in global prices.

For growers who were already battling to eke out a living, the situation has only added to their plight.

In its last report on the sector in 2019, the World Bank estimated that more than half (54.9%) of cocoa producers lived on less than 757 CFA francs (about R20) a day.

"I started planting in 1996 and I still don't have a roof because there's no money," said Kone.

"It's not dignified."