The European Union (EU) is planning to provide around one billion euros ($1.2 billion) over six years towards Ivory Coast’s cocoa sector, as the latter adapts to European Union supply chain laws towards sustainable cocoa production, due to be introduced later this year.
Ivory Coast, the world’s largest cocoa producer, has begun negotiations with the European Union to agree on minimum sustainability standards.
The European Union has previously urged the Ivory Coast to prepare for stricter cocoa laws that the body hopes to ratify later this year with the aim of protecting forests, curbing child labour and ending farmer poverty. The European Union represents the leading destination for Ivorian beans, accounting for 67% of the country’s cocoa exports.
Ivory Coast’s cocoa sector employs nearly one million small farmers, and represents 25% of the economy and 40% of export earnings.
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