Ivory Coast will cap cocoa production at 2 million tonnes from next year to bolster prices, a government official said as the 2019/20 season got under way on Tuesday. The world's largest cocoa producer, which expects to have produced about 2.2 million tonnes last season, had flagged that it planned to limit output in coordination with neighbouring Ghana to contend with an oversupplied market. The two countries produce about 60% of the world's cocoa.

It was not clear exactly how the government plans to monitor production from Ivory Coast's thousands of small, independent farms, given previous struggles to stamp out illegal cocoa farming and smuggling. However, Tuesday's announcement contained the first official mention of a specific production limit and marks a new stage in protecting revenues in West African countries.

Copyright Reuters, 2019