Africa's top cocoa producers pledge fairer prices for farmers

The declaration was signed at a high-level bilateral summit in Abidjan between Ghana's President John Dramani Mahama and his Ivorian counterpart, President Alassane Ouattara.

Together, Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire produce about 60 percent of the world's cocoa, making their partnership central to the global market.

Addressing the summit, Ouattara underscored the importance of the partnership between the two countries. Yaa Manu, a Ghanaian cocoa farmer drying her cocoa beans at Hennehkrom.

"With my brother, President John Dramani Mahama, we reaffirm today our determination to continue building together a fair, prosperous and sustainable cocoa economy for Côte d'Ivoire, for Ghana and for Africa," he said, adding that the future of the sector was "a major issue of economic sovereignty, social stability and shared prosperity" for both nations.

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Mahama, for his part, emphasised the need for closer collaboration to improve farmers' livelihoods and create greater value from cocoa production.

"We are partners, not adversaries or competitors, in the cocoa sector. This collaboration must be strengthened, and it must allow us to make our producers happy," he said, stressing that the goal was not only to produce cocoa but to process more of it locally, so both countries could benefit from its full value.

Joint declaration
Under the declaration, the two leaders agreed to expand the Cocoa Alliance by inviting other African cocoa-producing countries to join, with the aim of strengthening the continent's collective bargaining power in international markets.

They also agreed to establish a common framework for determining cocoa producer prices, alongside stronger market intelligence systems to help ensure fair and sustainable incomes for farmers.

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Environmental protection featured prominently in the talks. Mahama and Ouattara voiced deep concern over the growing threat that illegal mining poses to rivers, lakes and agricultural land, and agreed on a coordinated strategy to curb the practice, restore polluted shared water bodies through clean-up operations, and protect cocoa production from the effects of climate change. Dignitaries at the bilateral summit

The two presidents also pledged to deepen scientific collaboration to combat cocoa swollen shoot virus disease (CSSVD) and other pests, which remain among the greatest threats to production.

They reaffirmed their commitment to transforming Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire from exporters of raw cocoa beans into industrial processing hubs, and agreed to recognise the Côte d'Ivoire-Ghana Cocoa Initiative (CIGCI) and the African Regional Standards for Sustainable Cocoa (ARS-1000) as key mechanisms for traceability and sustainability.

Cocoa farmers react
For the farmers who grow the beans in Ghana, the renewed collaboration represents more than diplomacy. It is a test of whether Africa's two largest cocoa producers can finally use their collective market power to influence global prices and improve rural livelihoods.

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Richard Adu, a cocoa farmer at Atronie in the Sunyani Municipality of the Bono Region, told RFI: "We prayed that the two countries would follow through, as for some time now the price of cocoa has been bad. If they are able to implement what they have agreed to do, we, the cocoa farmers, would be happy to work more."

Yaa Manu, a cocoa farmer at Hennehkrom, said: "We have heard many promises, but implementation becomes a challenge. I am hoping this time they would be able to implement these plans, so that we would benefit from it as cocoa farmers."