Cargill Stops Ivory Coast Cocoa Grinding Over Quality, Spotlighting West Africa Crunch

Cargill has suspended cocoa grinding in Ivory Coast, citing poor bean quality in this season’s mid-crop. The decision is rare for a company that has operated in the country for decades and underscores the mounting strains in a global supply chain already stretched by record-high prices.

According to reports, the current beans have unusually low fat content, high acidity, and excessive waste, flaws that cut yields and make grinding unprofitable. For Ivory Coast, the world’s largest cocoa producer and processor, the stoppage is a blow that ripples far beyond Abidjan. Together with Ghana, its neighbor and rival, the two countries supply more than 60% of the world’s cocoa.

Ivory Coast’s Beans Under Scrutiny

Ivory Coast has spent years positioning itself not just as the world’s leading grower but also as the top grinder, encouraging multinationals like Cargill, Barry Callebaut, and Olam to expand processing capacity. That strategy is faltering this season.

Figures from the exporters’ association GEPEX show cocoa grinding in Ivory Coast plunged 31.2% year-on-year in July 2025, falling to just 39,301 tons. For the season as a whole, from October through July, grinding totaled 515,055 tons, a 4% decline compared to the same period a year earlier.

Bean arrivals tell a similar story. Between April and mid-August, deliveries to the country’s two main ports, Abidjan and San Pedro, dropped by about 30% from a year earlier, falling to 350,000 tons. Exporters warn that existing stockpiles are now depleted, leaving grinders with little to work with until the main harvest begins in October.

Ghana’s Different Struggle

Across the border, Ghana’s challenge is not quality but quantity. Its cocoa continues to command a premium in world markets for its flavor and butter yield, but output has collapsed.

According to Cocobod figures, production for the 2024/25 season is hovering around 530,000 tons, the lowest in more than two decades. Swollen shoot disease, black pod fungus, aging trees, and illegal mining have all eroded supply. Climate change, with its erratic rainfall and rising temperatures, is compounding the difficulties.

Farmers had been promised a historic pay rise when global prices surged to unprecedented levels this year, topping $10,700 a ton on futures markets. While the government indeed raised the farm-gate price, the appreciation of the cedi against the dollar canceled out much of the gain. 

What looked like a windfall in international markets translated into only modest increases once converted locally. Many growers say the adjustment barely covers the rising cost of fertilizers, pesticides, and labor.

Farmers Under Pressure

That mismatch has fueled frustration across the cocoa belt. In Ghana, some farmers have turned to smuggling beans into neighboring countries where they can secure better returns, undermining official supply channels.

In Ivory Coast, the problem is different but equally damaging: beans are being rejected or discounted by processors who say they cannot grind them profitably. For farming households that depend almost entirely on cocoa income, this means that record world prices are failing to bring record rewards.

A Market on Edge

The twin crises leave the global cocoa trade in a precarious position. Ivory Coast has the beans but not the quality. Ghana has the quality but not the beans. Between them, the world’s top two suppliers cannot deliver what chocolate makers need.

Companies such as Hershey are already grappling with raw material costs. Cocoa futures surged more than 150% over the past year, reaching as high as $10,750 a ton. Tariff changes and processing stoppages like Cargill’s threaten to squeeze margins further.

Longer term, structural challenges loom. Ivory Coast has already said it will scale back forward sales for the 2025/26 season to around 1.3 million tons, down from the typical 1.7 million, in anticipation of lower output.

Regulatory Headwinds

On top of agronomic and market pressures, new regulations are adding complexity. From December 2024, the European Union’s anti-deforestation law requires strict traceability for cocoa entering the bloc. Ivory Coast has begun rolling out a digital ID system to track beans from farm to port, but smaller cooperatives warn they lack the resources to comply. Unless financial support is provided, some fear they could be forced out of business entirely.

Processors are now pinning their hopes on the main crop harvest in October, aiming to rebuild stockpiles and lift monthly grinding back toward averages of around 58,000 tons. But even if volumes improve, the underlying issues remain.

For Ivory Coast, the challenge is restoring bean quality and helping farmers adapt to climate and regulatory shifts. For Ghana, it is reviving output, replacing aging trees, and convincing farmers that they can benefit from global price booms. Both countries introduced the Living Income Differential in 2019, a $400-per-ton premium on exports meant to raise farmer incomes, but most growers say it has yet to change their lives.

Until these deeper problems are resolved, the global chocolate industry faces a supply chain more fragile than at any point in recent memory.

Source: This story was compiled from findings from Reuters (Sept 2025), Bloomberg (Aug 2025), GEPEX data (July 2025), Ghana Cocoa Board 2024/25 figures, and International Cocoa Organization market updates.

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