Date of publication: October 9, 2008
Source: Bloomberg
Author: Pauline Bax
By Pauline Bax
Ivory Coast cocoa farmers are withholding their beans at the start of the harvesting season because of a dispute over prices, said Fulgence N'Guessan, president of the country's National Union of Cocoa Exporting Cooperatives.
"We have asked the authorities to review the farm gate price so that cocoa flows to the ports normally," he said by phone from the capital Abidjan today.
The Ivory Coast liberalized its cocoa market in 1999, replacing a fixed price set by the government with an indicative one set at the start of each season. The indicative price is not binding and is usually higher than the real price paid to farmers...