The COCOA Barometer 2025 report, launched yesterday, has revealed that despite the rising prices of cocoa, millions of smallholder farmers in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria still remain trapped in poverty.

The report, conducted by a consortium of civil society actors from around the world and hosted by the VOICE network, revealed that West Africa’s producers continue to bear the heaviest burdens of climate shocks, governance gaps, and unfair value distribution.

According to the report, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana produce more than 60 per cent of the world’s cocoa, while Nigeria is projected to produce 350,000 tonnes in the 2024/25 season, yet despite this dominance, most farmers have not benefited from the recent price surge.

The document observed that Forward-selling mechanisms have delayed price increases, while yields continue to decline due to ageing trees, crop diseases, and erratic rainfall linked to climate change.

The Cocoa Barometer also highlighted that farmer poverty was at the root of virtually all problems in the cocoa sector, from deforestation to child labour and gender inequality.

It noted that the new human rights and environmental legislation would have ensured that farmers were paid fairly, but political resistance in Europe was threatening the hard-won progress in regulation.

The document mentioned that high prices were driving expansion to new regions in West Africa and feared that the boom might lead to oversupply and falling prices, just as happened in 2016.

It further said that cocoa-growing communities were faced with climate change, deforestation, and human rights violations, as 1.5 million children still work in dangerous conditions in cocoa farming in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire and women, who do the majority of farm work, remain excluded from decision-making and profit sharing.

The report, however, attributed the sector’s fragility to weak governance and policy gaps, as supply management had remained absent, leaving farmers vulnerable to volatile markets. The lack of transparency in cocoa sales, including farmgate pricing, continues to limit accountability.