• Côte d’Ivoire supplies about 40% of global cocoa production, and the 2025/2026 season began in October.

• The Coffee-Cocoa Council (CCC) denied reports of blocked cocoa commercialization at Abidjan and San Pedro ports.

• The CCC said at least 80% of the 2025/2026 crop sold between October and December at a guaranteed price of 2,800 CFA francs per kilogram ($4.9).

In Côte d’Ivoire, the Coffee-Cocoa Council denied on Wednesday, January 14, reports of a blockage in cocoa bean commercialization during a press briefing.

In recent weeks, international media reported that several trucks loaded with cocoa remained immobilized around the ports of Abidjan and San Pedro. These reports said the situation disrupted the entire logistics chain for evacuating beans from production areas.

However, Yves Brahima Koné, Director General of the Coffee-Cocoa Council, said the trucks in question operated illegally because they lacked bills of lading, which exporters must obtain to ship cocoa.

“The Coffee-Cocoa Council has properly organized the sector. Eight years ago, in 2018, I made the following decision: no cocoa shipment leaves a production area without a bill of lading. The operator and the exporter receiving the shipment in Abidjan must validate the bill of lading. If both parties do not approve the bill of lading, the shipment cannot leave its production area to reach Abidjan. Therefore, when people say that trucks are in Abidjan, they have no papers, and they operate illegally. For us at the Council, this is fraud,” Mr. Koné said.

Meanwhile, several industry associations expressed concerns about a cocoa sales crisis that could hurt farmers’ incomes. In response, the head of the regulator sought to reassure market participants.

“We are responsible people. We made forecasts. Buyers will purchase all cocoa produced in Côte d’Ivoire from our plantations,” he said.

Mr. Koné added that buyers sold at least 80% of the 2025/2026 crop between October and December.

In the largest economy of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA), authorities opened the current cocoa season with a guaranteed farmgate price of CFA2,800 per kilogram, equivalent to $4.9.