Reconfiguration of the Cocoa Industry and Poverty Reduction in Cote D’Ivoire

The aim of this paper is to study the Ivorian cocoa supply chain to determine ways to improve the financial windfall share (generated by the cocoa industry), which returns to Cote d’Ivoire through local actors. To achieve this goal, we made a descriptive analysis and schematized the different stages of the supply chain, from the farm gate to the sale of chocolate (in Western countries). This analysis has shown that actors located in consumer countries ensure the governance of this chain and also that the share of the value accruing to Cote d'Ivoire is very low. The study also shows that the best way to improve the share of Cote d'Ivoire in the financial windfall generated by the cocoa industry is to create more value for local actors, and enable the achievement of successive stages of the value chain on the Ivorian domestic market. So instead of limiting ourselves to the activities of production and export of cocoa beans to multinational grinders, the manufacture and distribution of chocolate (or cocoa-based products) worldwide should be performed from producer countries (particularly Côte d'Ivoire). This initiative will greatly reduce unemployment and improve the income of farmers, and therefore reduce poverty.