By Baudelaire Mieu and Mumbi Gitau

Dec 5, 2025 (Bloomberg) –Ivory Coast is facing a temporary glut of cocoa at its ports as farmers rush to find buyers due to falling international prices and a cash crunch affecting local exporters.

Ports at Abidjan, the commercial hub, and San Pedro have been clogged with truckloads of cocoa for the last three weeks as middlemen arrive with beans looking for buyers, according to people familiar with the matter. The surge has lifted weekly cocoa bean arrivals above 100,000 tons recently, higher than usual this time of year.

The development risks distorting market estimates for the size of this season’s crop and further pushing down cocoa prices. 

The backlog is partly caused by a cash crunch among licensed exporters. Falling global prices have eaten into their income, making it harder to pay for forward contracts agreed at higher levels with the regulator, the people said. The drop in prices has also squeezed their profit margins, making banks less willing to lend to them, said the people.

That’s pushed middlemen and some cooperatives to haul beans to the ports, compelling the industry regulator’s trading arm, Transcao Cote d’Ivoire, to step in to purchase them. Anxiety among farmers that the government may lower pay following the slump in global prices is also fueling the rush to offload beans, according to Andrew Moriarty, a cocoa expert at market intelligence firm Expana.

“We’re seeing farmers basically just pulling everything they could off the trees and rushing it into ports, and that is what’s causing these sort of inflated arrivals figures,” said Moriarty. “They’re all terrified that this farm gate price is going to drop from its current all-time record.”

Cocoa futures have more than halved from last year’s December peak on expectations of a bigger surplus in the current season. Strong arrivals from the top grower have embedded this view, further weighing on prices. 

To address the congestion, the industry regulator Le Conseil Cafe-Cacao has taken several steps — including intermittently shutting down its system that records arrivals — so as to regulate the entry of trucks and minimize congestion at the two ports, the people said. A spokeswoman for CCC didn’t immediately comment when contacted by phone.

Farmers have also complained that the CCC has been slow to issue delivery notes, the crucial paperwork required to move cocoa from growing areas to the ports, adding to worries among growers. That’s left roughly 120,000 tons of beans sitting in warehouses, awaiting loading to the ports, according to Kone Moussa, president of the growers union known as Synapci. 

The regulator has also launched a crackdown on buyers offering to pay farmers prices below the state-mandated minimum or skimming weight from sacks, according to a statement. Four people have been arrested so far.

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