Top Cocoa Producers in Africa to Create Buffer Stock to Influence World Prices

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Ivory Coast and Ghana, the world's top cocoa producers, plan to create a buffer stock of beans with the aim of exerting more influence over world prices, a senior Ivorian government official told Reuters on Thursday.

The two West African neighbors produce over 60 percent of the global supply of the chocolate ingredient but have been hit hard by a sharp drop in world prices caused mainly by a glut resulting from bumper crops this season.

The International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) forecasts a global surplus of 371,000 tons this season.

"The countries agreed that we needed specialized warehouses to allow us to conserve cocoa so that we can regulate supply and push up prices," Narcisse Sepy Yessoh, chief of staff to Ivory Coast Trade Minister Souleymane Diarrassouba, told Reuters.