The 2009/10 cocoa year got off to a rocky start in the Côte d’Ivoire. Barely a couple of weeks into the new season, the Organization of Agricultural Producers, a union representing about a third of all cocoa cooperatives, launched a strike in protest against lacking government support. The overt reason seems to be surge in world market prices to over $3,300/ton that has not translated into higher prices for farmers.
According to another Reuters report, farmers have stopped some trucks from reaching the export facilities in the port of San Pedro and Bloomberg reports picketers outside the Senate building in Abidjan.