...Ivory Coast and Ghana have stepped up their efforts to reform the industry, imposing a fixed “living income differential” of $400 a tonne on all cocoa contracts sold by either country for the 2020/21 season...The premium...replaces an earlier proposal for a floor price for cocoa contracts, which is part of a wider plan to combat poverty among farmers in Ivory Coast and Ghana...

[Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana]...said last month they would fix a minimum price of $2,600 per tonne free-on-board (FOB) that chocolate companies must pay from the 2020/21 season if they want to access their cocoa. Funds raised by the living income differential (LID) will be used to help increase payments to farmers, with the aim being for them to get 70% of a $2,600 a tonne (FOB) target price, the letter sent by the two governments to a trade federation says. If market prices rise above $2,900 (FOB), proceeds from the LID will be placed in a stabilisation fund that would aim to ensure the governments can pay farmers 70% of the $2,600 target price when market prices fall...The LID will apply in addition to the normal country differentials, the letter says. “Short term they’ll win (on price) but how long will it be before industry reorganise themselves and Ivory Coast and Ghana have too much production they have to control,” said a Europe-based trader...

Ghana and Ivory Coast last month suspended forward sales of cocoa for the 2020/21 season to give themselves time to implement the new pricing mechanism...Chocolate makers including Mars, Olam and Hershey’s told...support efforts to relieve farmer poverty, but traders said the plan could lead to surplus production and might eventually prompt them to seek other sources of supply. Companies at a meeting...to discuss the plan included Hershey, Mars, Blommer Chocolate, Cemoi, SucDen, Mondelez, Touton, Barry Callebaut, Cargill, Olam and Ecom Trading.