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Food and agriculture 2026-04-26 10 minute read 10 sources

Cocoa 2024 to 2026: West African Collapse, Price Shock, and the EUDR Reset

ICE cocoa futures printed an all time high above USD 12,500 per tonne in April 2024, then settled into a USD 7,000 to 9,000 range through Q1 2026. Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana, together roughly 60 percent of world supply, are still under disease, climate, and galamsey stress, and the chocolate platform is repricing through the entire value chain.

World cocoa output fell to roughly 4.4 million tonnes in 2023 to 2024 from a 5.0 million tonne plateau, with Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana driving more than 80 percent of the shortfall. Black pod disease, cocoa swollen shoot virus disease, El Nino dryness, and the rapid encroachment of artisanal gold mining (galamsey) onto Ghanaian cocoa land c...

Food and agriculture 2026-04-26 9 minute read 5 sources

West Africa Wheat Shock 2026: Import Dependence, Fiscal Pass-Through, and Political Risk

How a tightening Black Sea balance, a rigid Russian export quota cycle, and weakening CFA and naira positions are reshaping bread economics from Dakar to Abuja.

West Africa enters the second quarter of 2026 with the highest wheat import bill in its history, driven by a thinner Black Sea exportable surplus, a punitive Russian quota cycle running from February to June, and weakening local currencies. Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, and Burkina Faso together import roughly 13 to 14 million t...