ABIDJAN: Ivory Coast's robusta coffee output this season is expected to fall short of volumes sold forward by the country's marketing board, said exporters who worry they may face costly defaults on contracts with clients. Under reforms introduced last season, Ivory Coast abandoned more than a decade of sector liberalisation.
The Coffee and Cocoa Council (CCC) now sells forward export clearances for the bulk of the anticipated crop in order to fix a guaranteed price for farmers for the season, which began in December.
However, with most of the harvest now delivered to the country's ports of Abidjan and San Pedro, some exporters have been unable to meet their purchasing quotas.
"There are a lot of people who have paper but don't have physical product," said one exporter based in San Pedro, Ivory Coast's second port.
Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa grower, is seeking to reach annual coffee production of 300,000 tonnes, up from around 100,000 tonnes in recent years. Some exporters accused the CCC, which has not made public how much coffee was sold forward this season, of being overly optimistic regarding this year's harvest and said it had auctioned export clearances for more coffee than was produced.
"We're going to have enormous losses in the millions of euros," a second exporter told Reuters.
The CCC declined a Reuters request for comment. Others said smuggling - mainly to neighbouring Guinea - was responsible for the shortfall. The Ivorian farmer price for the 2013/14 season was set at 620 CFA francs ($1.29) per kg. However, exporters and merchants said buyers in Guinea are paying significantly above that level.
"The buyers come and pay 750 to 800 CFA francs, sometimes even 825 francs," said Yacouba Timite, a merchant based in the western town of Man. "It's easier to sell in Guinea, because they come with their own trucks to transport the coffee."
Exporters said they had been in touch with the CCC in an attempt to negotiate a compromise. Among proposals under discussion, they said, was the possibility of allowing exporters to roll over their export clearances to next season without the usual penalties.
However, some complained that such a deal would do nothing to alleviate the costs incurred due to defaults on contracts with customers this season.
"The CCC is shirking its responsibility," said a third exporter, based in the commercial capital Abidjan.
"It's up to them to guarantee there's coffee. It's the job of the state to control its borders and ensure that coffee that has already been sold is available."
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