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Adverse weather, crop disease and aging plantations have taken a heavy toll on cocoa production in Ivory Coast, the world’s biggest grower of the key chocolate-making ingredient. 

And if that’s not enough to contend with, smugglers move about 6% of the nation’s harvest into Guinea and Liberia, using trucks, motorbikes and canoes to transport beans across borders where they fetch much higher prices.

The farmers’ plight has now become an election issue.

Farmers drop off their cocoa beans at a buying center in Daloa, Ivory Coast, in 2023.  Photographer: Paul Ninson/Bloomberg

The industry accounts for about 40% of Ivory Coast’s export income and is a vital source of government revenue. The low crop yields and leakage have undermined both the state’s finances and its ability to make the investment needed to bolster cocoa output.

Farmers in the West African nation earn about $3,600 a ton for their beans — a level set by regulator Conseil du Café-Cacao. While it ramped up prices in October, they are still only about a third of those paid on global markets. 

Small-scale producers who account for most of Ivory Coast’s cocoa have complained that the CCC’s forward-pricing mechanism, which sees beans sold a month in advance of the harvest, results in domestic rates lagging international ones.

The regulator has largely spurned calls for a overhaul. But with farmers making up a key voting block and elections just months away in October — in which President Alassane Ouattara will probably seek a fourth term — there is more urgency to change the pricing system. 

The regulator has held back on forward sales for the upcoming 2025-26 crop. It has also indicated that it favors selling beans closer to the start of the season and signing more spot deals in the hope of securing higher prices.

The reforms should go some way toward deterring smuggling and placating farmers, yet they’re unlikely to see the full benefits of a booming market. — Mumbi Gitau

Key stories and opinion: 
High Cocoa Prices Drive Smuggling Surge, Alarming Traders
Cocoa Supply Woes Worsen as Quality in Ivory Coast Declines
Ivory Coast Raises New Cocoa-Crop Price Amid Smaller Harvest
West African Growers Hold Back Cocoa in Risky Bet on Price Gains
Why Cocoa Prices Spiked and What It Means for Consumers: QuickTake

Kenyan Deputy Inspector General Eliud Lagat agreed to step down pending a probe into the death of a man in police custody. The police initially said teacher and blogger Albert Ojwang succumbed to self-inflicted injuries while in custody, but a postmortem showed he died from head injuries after being assaulted. At least 20 people have died in detention in the past four months, according to Kenya’s Independent Policing Oversight Authority. 

A protest in Nairobi against deaths in detention. Photographer: Luis Tato/Getty Images

A Malian court ruled that Barrick’s Loulo-Gounkoto gold-mining complex should be placed under provisional administration for six months, handing control of one of the Canadian company’s biggest operations to state-appointed management. The mine was shuttered for months due to a dispute over dividend payments and the authorities had warned it would take control unless it was reopened. Soumana Makadji, an accountant and former health minister, will manage Loulo-Gounkoto.

Gasoline retailers in Nigeria accused Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest person, of seeking to monopolize sales in the West African nation with his mega refinery. The Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Association of Nigeria said the Dangote Refinery’s plans to ship fuel to dealers countrywide for free could lead to “a monopoly in disguise’’ and result in significant job losses. A spokesperson for the company declined to comment. The complaint follows an announcement by the 650,000-barrel-a-day plant that it had bought 4,000 trucks to distribute its output.

An attendant fills a container with fuel at a gasoline station in Lagos, Nigeria. Photographer: Benson Ibeabuchi/Bloomberg

Zimbabwe’s central bank, wary of a rise in global tensions, left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 35% on Monday following a surprise meeting. Policymakers were only due to review borrowing costs on June 27, according to a schedule on its website. Despite the current uncertain international environment, the Reserve Bank said it still sees 6% domestic economic growth as achievable this year. Economists expected a strong performance by the agriculture industry to help spur the expansion.

Just two years after winning the backing of one of the world’s biggest green-infrastructure investors, a little-known South African firm is rapidly redrawing the country’s energy map. Mulilo Renewable Energy got a $200 million investment from Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners in 2023 and has since won more utility-scale battery projects in South Africa than all of its rivals. Founded in 2008, Mulilo aims to reach financial close on $2 billion of projects this year, Chief Executive Officer Jan Fourie said in an interview.

The Hex Battery Energy Storage System site operated by state power utility Eskom in Worcester, near Cape Town.

Algeria’s parliament approved legislation allowing foreign companies to own as much of 80% of mining projects, a step change for the OPEC country as it seeks to diversify its economy. Authorities say the new law will streamline the investment process and boost extractive industries. A key natural gas supplier to Europe, Algeria borders countries that are significant mineral exporters, but ships relatively little itself. It’s developing substantial finds of phosphate, iron ore, lead and zinc.

Thank you for your responses to our weekly Next Africa Quiz and congratulations to Peter Masue who was first to correctly identify Burundi as the African country whose ruling party secured all National Assembly seats in parliamentary elections this month.

Nigeria’s annual inflation rate cooled for a second month, giving policymakers a clearer picture of price trends after a data revamp in January clouded the outlook. Annual consumer-price inflation slowed to 23% in May, data from the national statistics agency showed. A relatively stable currency and flat energy costs helped dampen price pressures. 

Thanks for reading. We’ll be back in your inbox with the next edition on Friday. Send any feedback to mcohen21@bloomberg.net