Jean Mari Konan Yao says he struggles like a cocoa farmer in the west African The nation of the Ivory Coast, which produces almost half of the world’s cachaan raw ingredients used in chocolate.
Like many of the Ivory Coast – the world’s largest manufacturer of Kaka – Konan Yao says that Cako has long gotten the life council for him, but unfavorable weather diseases and herbal diseases were injured for harvest in recent years.
Now, the farmers of Kakaa cares even more over the president plan by President Donald Trump to change the rate of 21% to ivory products – mostly among West African peoples.
Although Trump suspended Tariff plans for 90 days, the further examination, authorities in Ivory Coil warned that such tariffs could send the price of Kaka even greater and destabilize the local market by slowing down their sales.
Ivory Coast produces between two million and 2.5 million metric tons of kaka, and about 200,000 to 300,000 metric tons embroidered in the United States, codes and cocoa.
In 2023. Ivory Coast exported $ 3.68 billion cocoa beans, his second largest exports after gold. The United States was his fourth largest importer of coco, after the Netherlands, Malaysia and Belgiumaccording to the organization for economic cooperation and development.
For most local cocoa cooperation, every American tariff could be further shagged to a market that is already fighting yields and reducing funding that have limited ability of farmers to meet global chocolate requirements.
“If we hear American The president will put the price on the price of Kaka, it is really not good for us, it does not help us, “said another cocoa farmer, Salif Traoré.
The prices of cocoa rose in the country in part due to insufficient and irregular rain on the ivory coast.
The research company for energy and climate intelligence noticed that 32% of the rise in Kakaa imports to the United Kingdom in the last three years, in part due to extreme weather conditions in the parts of Africa where it is mainly grown. Together, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon produce about three-quarters of the world’s cocoa.
Cocoa is traded on a regulated, global market. On the Ivory Coast, the Government usually sets cocoa prices at the beginning of each season, with prices that reflect market trends and global prices. Local prices are, however, lower than global market rates, which restricts the profit of farmers from high global prices.
Authorities say they are already considered by collecting cocoa, if effective effects.
“Donald Trump Customs Tax is applied by problems. We already feel the effects,” said the head of Diarra, the coordinator of the local Farmers of Kaka in Bouaflé on the central Ivory Coast. He pointed to the bags of Kaka that he said, the farmers could not sell.
Meanwhile, the American tariff could mean more Kaka for the European market, Bruno Marcel Iritié, researcher in the Polytechnic Institute Ivorian Félix Houchouët-Boigyty. Some of the best imports of ivory coasts are cocoa in Europe, emissions in the data market.
European customers “will inevitably buy cheaper because when there is too much, the buyer is king,” Iritié said.
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