The world’s two biggest cocoa producers halted sales for the harvest that will begin in October 2020, pending an agreement with buyers on a minimum price.

Ivory Coast and Ghana want to set the floor price at $2,600 per ton, Joe Forson, managing director of Ghana Cocoa Board’s marketing unit, told buyers Tuesday in the Ghanaian capital, Accra.

Should the market price fall below this level, the two regulators will implement a so-called “living-income differential” to make up the difference, said Forson.

The regulators of both countries are meeting buyers about the proposal, which they said is necessary to address income disparity in the cocoa value chain. The two countries last year outlined plans to coordinate cocoa production and marketing as part of efforts to exert more control in the market after sharp price swings in recent years.

Accounting for about three-fifths of global cocoa output, Ivory Coast and Ghana typically sell about 80% of the bigger of the two annual harvests before it starts.

Source: Bloomberg