Chocolate War Leaves Top Cocoa Producer Stuck With Beans
- West Africa strategy to charge more backfires as beans pile up
- OPEC-style plan by Ivory Coast, Ghana leaves farmers ‘fed up’
Photographer: Cristina Aldehuela/AFP/Getty Images
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Nobody is suffering more from a global chocolate standoff than the Ivory Coast cocoa farmer.
Less than two years after the top cocoa producer teamed up with neighboring Ghana to force companies from Hershey Co. to Nestle SA to pay more for their beans, the attempt to exert control over prices is backfiring. Buyers are refusing to pay up, beans are piling in warehouses upcountry and farmers are so desperate that some even slept outside the offices of Ivory Coast’s cocoa regulator demanding action.