Ivory Coast cocoa exporters curb exposure and inventories amid glut
ANGE ABOA COCAO exporters in the world’s top grower Ivory Coast are switching to cheaper contracts for later delivery and buying less to cut inventories amid a glut, blaming a scheme to charge a $400-per-tonne cocoa premium to curb farmer poverty. Exporters said that the introduction this season of the Living Income Differential (LID) premium - paid by exporters to the government to support farmers - together with a bumper crop while global demand is falling, had left them with tonnes of unsold stocks and forced them to limit risks. “You have to adapt or lose a lot of money…