Cameroon and Nigeria began the process of joining the consortium at a meeting held in Abidjan on October 12th . Joining the consortium, will aim at improving the living conditions of these cocoa farmers.

Thousands of African cocoa farmers suffer from the indecent prices set by buyers. To improve the living conditions of these actors, the Côte d’Ivoire-Ghana Cocoa Initiative (Cigcic) has been set up. It publishes a monthly income benchmark of $400 for each tonne of cocoa to ensure greater transparency.

It is to give weight to this premium that Cigcic wants to recruit two other major cocoa producers, Cameroon and Nigeria, into its ranks. According to Reuters, representatives of these two countries took part in a meeting organised in Abidjan on 12 October 2022, the aim of which was to initiate the steps for their membership. “With Cameroon and Nigeria, we will represent about 75% of world production… This will allow us to have more latitude in discussions with the industry to impose a decent price on our producers,” said Yves Brahima Koné, Director General of the Ivorian Cocoa-Coffee Council (CCC).

This project is possible because of the performance of these four countries in world cocoa production. Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, respectively 1st and 2nd during the 2021-2022 season, account for about 55% of the world cocoa supply, i.e. more than 2.2 million tonnes of cocoa beans for the former and 822,000 tonnes for the latter, for a subtotal of 3.022 million tonnes during the abovementioned period.

The invitation of Cameroon and Nigeria, 4th and 6th in the world, is not accidental. Both account for about 11% of the world production estimated at 5.7 million tonnes with 295,000 t and 270,000 t respectively during the past season, reports Eco matin.