Farmers in biggest cocoa producer are very short of fertilizer, survey says

By Marcelo Teixeira

April 28 (Reuters) – Farmers in Ivory Coast, the world’s largest producer of cocoa, are finding it difficult to get fertilizers for their crops and most of them have ​not bought any for the next two production cycles, ‌a survey found.

The survey, organized by crop forecaster HSAT, and conducted across Ivory Coast’s primary cocoa-producing regions, covering Nawa, Agneby Tiassa, Sud Comoe, found that 73% of respondents have not bought any fertilizer.

Cocoa is the main ingredient of chocolate.

A quarter ‌of ​farmers secured some of the fertilizer they ⁠needed for upcoming crops, while ⁠only 2% said they had all they needed.

“Input costs are climbing while cocoa prices fall. Farmers who would normally be buying fertilizer right now simply aren’t,” said Evan MacHattie, an executive at ​HSAT and one of the organizers of the survey.

“Layer on the poor tree health we’re already seeing across the region and a ⁠high El Nino probability, and this ⁠is shaping up to be a significant supply story ​in the second half of the year,” he added.

Typically the El Nino ​weather pattern reduces cocoa production because it leads to heat ‌stress and erratic rains.

The biggest obstacle to buying fertilizer in Ivory Coast is money. Farmers’ revenues have shrunk after cocoa prices crashed by more than 70% from a peak hit at the end of ⁠2024.

Fertilizer prices meanwhile have surged as supplies have been severely affected by the Iran war since the Gulf region is a major supplier of raw ⁠materials for fertilizer ‌production.

The situation would be worse, MacHattie said, if ⁠African cocoa producers used more nitrogen-based fertilizers. Their basic ​needs ‌are instead phosphate-based products.

HSAT projected an impact of ​4.8% for Ivory ⁠Coast cocoa production later this year, and said future production would suffer more if the Middle East conflict continues.

It expects a significant impact for the Ivory Coast’s mid-crop in 2027 and a severe impact for the main harvest in 2027/28.

(Reporting by Marcelo Teixeira in New York; editing ​by Barbara Lewis)