Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire move to harmonise cocoa pricing and policies

Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire have agreed to deepen cooperation in the cocoa sector with new measures aimed at stabilising prices, boosting research, and expanding their joint cocoa initiative to include more African producers.

The Minister of Finance, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson announced that the decision was taken at the 7th meeting of the Steering Committee of the Côte d’Ivoire–Ghana Cocoa Initiative (CIGCI) in Abidjan and presented at a high-level summit on the future of the cocoa economy.

The meeting was co-chaired by Ghana’s Finance Minister, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, and Côte d’Ivoire’s Agriculture Minister, Bruno Nabagné Koné. Both sides reviewed ongoing cooperation and agreed on key reforms intended to strengthen the sustainability and competitiveness of the cocoa sector.

According to him, a major outcome was a plan to harmonise farm-gate pricing policies between the two countries.

“To assure producers’ remuneration and stabilize the market, the two countries agreed to harmonize farm gate prices through a number of measures,” he noted.

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This includes closer coordination of trading systems, improved data sharing, and alignment of crop year calendars, which will now run from September 1 to August 31 starting from the 2026/2027 season.

A technical task force will also be set up to develop a joint pricing framework and periodically review producer prices to reduce disparities between the two countries.

On the scientific front, the two countries pledged to strengthen collaboration between their research institutions, with a focus on tackling cocoa swollen shoot virus disease and developing climate-resilient cocoa varieties. They also called for increased investment in research and development to ensure innovations reach farmers.

The committee further discussed the implementation of the African Regional Standard (ARS-1000) for sustainable cocoa production, urging stronger efforts toward securing buyer acceptance of an associated premium.

Dr Ato Forson also indicated that the committee also stressed the need to accelerate value addition within producing countries, noting that Africa grows about 80 percent of the world’s cocoa but earns only a small share of its profits.

It called for increased processing capacity, stronger regional trade, and higher domestic consumption of cocoa-based products.

A while ago, I presented the conclusions of the 7th Meeting of the Steering Committee of the Côte d’Ivoire–Ghana Cocoa Initiative (CIGCI) at the Côte d’Ivoire–Ghana High-Level Summit on the Future of the Cocoa Economy:

“The Steering Committee of the Côte d’Ivoire-Ghana Cocoa… pic.twitter.com/gTEJTJxwcy

— Cassiel Ato Forson (PhD) (@Cassielforson) June 16, 2026