Johannesburg — The price of cocoa, Cote d'Ivoire's primary export, jumped to its highest level in 16 years this week in a clear indication that the current crisis in the world's leading producer can be expected to affect supplies.
Following what the Ivorian authorities called an attempted coup on September 19 and the ensuing violent military uprising, cocoa prices hit their highest mark since September 1986. At the New York Board of Trade, cocoa for delivery in December rose to $2,174 per tonne during the week before profit-taking lowered the figure to $2,151. The daily price calculated by the International Cocoa Organization by averaging London and New York quotations rose to $2,246.81 on Thursday, dropping slightly Friday to $2,244.27.
Cote d'Ivoire is the world's number one cocoa grower, supplying 40 percent of the international market. Analysts say the next three months are vital, as the bulk of the crop is shipped between October and the end of December.
Shortages of cocoa had already sharply driven prices up this year by about 60 percent. Another year of production deficit could exacerbate poor supplies of cocoa beans for the third consecutive year. Fuel shortages in Cote d'Ivoire that resulted from a three-pronged attack on three cities by dissident soldiers have severely affected cocoa purchases. Reuters reported that the lack of petrol and a ban on tanker travel into the interior had virtually brought the Ivorian cocoa industry to a halt, hitting both buyers and exporters.
Although the main cocoa-growing areas are in the south and the west, there are fears that the current instability in the centre and north of the country could spread. Even if that doesn't happen, production could be affected by growing tension between immigrant cocoa plantation workers - who hail mainly from neighbouring Burkina Faso - and Ivorians.
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The government has obliquely accused its northern neighbour of backing the rebel soldiers and involvement in last week's coup, a charge denied by the Burkina government. Burkinabes in Cote d'Ivoire are believed to number more than 3 million, out of a total population of 16 million. The alleged link between the dissident troops and the government in Ouagadougou, the Burkina capital, prompted retaliation against Burkinabe immigrants in Abidjan, resentment which could spill over to rural cocoa workers from Burkina Faso.
Previous political troubles in Cote d'Ivoire have led to ugly clashes between Ivorians and the dominant Burkinabe cocoa workforce, which resulted in their expulsion from farming areas, with an immediate impact on the country's cocoa crop production.
