The cocoa connection: How 'brown gold' is smuggled between Ivory Coast, Liberia and Guinea

Because the world’s prime cocoa producer, Ivory Coast faces many challenges – at first the struggle towards unlawful smuggling of this “brown gold”. Some cocoa farmers contemplate the costs set by the state for his or her beans far too low. They like to promote the fruit of their harvest to traffickers, who then resell it throughout the border in Guinea or Liberia at far more enticing costs. This can be a main lack of income for the Ivorian authorities, which additionally has to take care of the challenges of traceability and deforestation. Our Ivory Coast correspondents Julia Guggenheim and Damien Koffi examine.



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