Negotiations leading to the seventh International Cocoa Agreement (ICCA) got underway in Yaounde, Cameroon in late March. ICCAs are general agreements that are supposed to foster cooperation between producer and consumer countries, encourage sustainable cocoa farming and help producer countries. Over the years, these agreements included market intervention mechanisms such as buffer stocks to smooth out cocoa price fluctuations but since the 1990s, such mechanism have been eliminated in favor of increased information dissemination and reliance on market mechanism.
Cameroon Farmers Hoard Cocoa, Get Higher Prices
Reuters reports that Cameroonian farmers have held back some of their cocoa from the market in order to push prices higher. As a result, prices have increased from CFAF1,150 ($2.66) per kilo in October to CFAF1,375 ($3,18) per kilo in November.
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