Farmers issue cocoa yield warning

COCOA yields will be “destroyed” by 2030 without financial support and fairer markets, Ivory Coast farmers have warned.

- 

The West African nation is the biggest producer of cocoa in the world, with farmers in the Bafing-Tonkpi region supplying chocolate to global markets, including the UK.

But years of depressed prices have eroded farmers’ ability to reinvest in their land, meaning aging trees, diseases and increasingly unpredictable climate conditions have caused productivity to plummet and prices to skyrocket. While UK shoppers paid 50% more for some chocolate products this Easter, farmers living in poverty at the other end of the supply chain are getting little financial benefit at the farm gate.

Yeyasso, a farming co-operative based in the western city of Man, said production from its 5,000 cocoa producers has dropped by 30% in recent years, prompting many to turn to farming other commodities, such as rubber or palm.

Biabate Posseni, 34, a Yeyasso farming lead who helps to train cocoa farmers and monitor their practices, said: “Climate change is strongly impacting the yield.

“When we wait for rain, rain doesn’t come, and when we need sun, there is no sun and instead we get a lot of rain,’ he told the PA news agency.

Like many in the area, Mr Posseni said he is “extremely worried” about the future if the situation worsens.