(Ecofin Agency) - Tomorrow will be the first day of the new cocoa season in Cote d’Ivoire. Proceeding to a general review of the sector, authorities said output in 2015/16 slumped by 12.52% from 2014/15’s record output of 1.79 million metric tons of cocoa, to 1.56 million Mt.

However, the Chairman of the Ivorian cocoa-coffee council, Lambert Kouassi Konan, said farmers don’t have much to complain about since “they were able to earn more than in the previous season, regardless of the lower output, due to a higher minimum producer price”.  

According to the official, cocoa farmers generated about FCFA1,565 billion this season, thus 2.83% more than 2014/15’s FCFA1,522 billion. In order to keep this momentum, the Ivorian government decided to bring producer price up 10%, for the 2016/17 season.

Aaron Akinocho