Côte d’Ivoire’s regulator sold 25,000 tonnes of cocoa contracts at a non-negative premium to Cargill last week, industry sources said.
Both Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana have traditionally charged country premiums, but after the introduction of the Living Income Differential to alleviate farmer poverty, buyers were unwilling to pay the original premium, and instead applied a negative premium to offset some of the increase that resulted from the application of the LID.
The two West African countries joined forces and declared in July that they would no longer sell cocoa with a negative origin differential. In August, Côte d’Ivoire raised its origin differential to zero from the previous -£125 per tonne.
