Ivory Coast Weighs Cocoa Tax Cuts to Lift Farmer Pay
- Cocoa regulator forecasts new crop of about 1.75 million tons
- Ivory Coast, Ghana to start study of cocoa smuggling
Cocoa fruit sit on the ground during harvesting on a cocoa plantation in Agboville, Ivory Coast, on Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2015. Ivory Coast will produce about 1.7 million metric tons of cocoa in the season that ends on Sept. 30, Ivory Coast's Prime Minister Daniel Kablan Duncan said.
Photographer: Jose Cendon/BloombergIvory Coast is considering cutting taxes on buying and exporting of cocoa to allow for an increase in the minimum price paid to farmers in the upcoming season, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The world’s biggest producer of cocoa is unlikely to raise the minimum price that it allows merchants to pay from the current 700 CFA francs ($1.27) per kilogram unless the tax cuts are implemented, said the person, who asked not to be identified because he isn’t authorized to speak about the matter. Tax breaks will allow buyers room to pay producers more, they said.