ABIDJAN: Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa grower, raised the guaranteed price it pays farmers to 750 CFA francs ($1.34) per kilogram for the 2018/19 main crop harvest, its cocoa board (CCC) said on Monday, up from 700 CFA francs last season.
Output this season is expected to be mostly unchanged from the 2017/18 season at slightly under 2 million tonnes, CCC chairman Lambert Kouassi Konan said at a ceremony to mark the start of the season.
"The guaranteed price for the whole territory is fixed at 750 CFA per kilogram for this season. No changes will be tolerated," Konan said.
Production surpassed 2 million tonnes in the 2016/17 season, causing prices to slide on the London and New York exchanges and Ivorian exporters to default on 80,000 tonnes of export contracts.
Konan also said that a registration tax on farmers had been reinstated to 1.5 percent of the per-kilo price of insurance and freight paid by buyers. The tax was eliminated during the past two seasons in order to boost farmers' revenues.
Number two producer Ghana, which together with Ivory Coast accounts for about 60 percent of global output, was expected to announce its farm gate price later on Monday.
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