Ivory Coast Cocoa and Cashews

A report from Reuters reveals that due to heavy rains in the Ivory Coast, cocoa production is under threat of flooding, insect damage and disease from heavy rain this rainy season. Ivory Coast is the world’s largest producer of cocoa.

The Ivory Coast cashew industry is on the verge of collapse following the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in farm overproduction and slumping demand. Industrial buyers of cashews have stalled in their purchasing of cashews from farmers due to low demand globally. Farmers are stuck with unsold produce from the last 2 seasons due to the lack of industrial demand.

Ivory Coast is the leading producer of cashew nuts in the world with 792,678 metric tons of output in 2019. This is closely followed by India with 743,000 metric tons of output the same year. These two countries have a solid lead over the next largest producers in Burundi, Viet Nam and Philippines with 2019 productions of 283,328, 283,328, and 242,329 metric tons respectively.