African cocoa-producing countries have been urged to form a continental alliance capable of setting a common price benchmark and protecting farmers from the volatility of international commodity markets.
The call was made by the Global President of the Cocoa and Coffee Farmers Alliance Association of Africa (COCEFAAA), Comrade Adeola Adegoke, who proposed a minimum cocoa price of $6,000 per metric tonne as part of efforts to strengthen Africa’s influence in the global cocoa trade.
Adegoke said the continent’s producers must move beyond isolated national interventions and adopt a coordinated strategy that would give farmers greater bargaining power while reducing dependence on commodity exchanges in London and New York, which continue to shape global cocoa prices.
The COCEFAAA president spoke while reacting to the successful conclusion of the 7th Steering Committee meeting of the Côte d’Ivoire-Ghana Cocoa Initiative in Abidjan, describing the development as a major step towards producer-led governance of the cocoa sector.
According to him, the partnership between Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, responsible for roughly 60 per cent of global cocoa production, has shown that producing countries can collectively influence industry policies and market conversations when they act in unity.
He therefore called for the expansion of the initiative into a broader African cocoa coalition involving other major producers, including Nigeria, Cameroon, Togo, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Adegoke expressed concern over the continued vulnerability of African economies to price fluctuations driven by external markets, noting that cocoa prices recently climbed above $11,000 per tonne before retreating sharply, exposing producers to uncertainty and revenue shocks.
He further lamented that despite supplying the bulk of the world’s cocoa beans, African countries earn only a fraction of the wealth generated across the global chocolate industry.
With the chocolate value chain estimated at about $165 billion, Adegoke said the continent receives barely six per cent of the returns, underscoring the need for a new pricing and marketing framework that places greater value in the hands of producers.
He maintained that establishing a continent-wide producers’ bloc and enforcing a minimum floor price would help secure farmer incomes, strengthen Africa’s negotiating position and ensure that cocoa-producing nations play a more decisive role in determining the value of one of their most important export commodities.
