Ivory Coast's new cocoa tracking system is stalling, and Ghana just raised the price across the border

The stories

15 stories on this beat today.

Every story told the same way: what happened, who is involved, why it matters, how it works, the truth and the good news.

1. 01

   Ivory Coast's new cocoa tracking system is stalling, and Ghana just raised the price across the border

   40%

   of the world's cocoa, grown in Ivory Coast

   around 70% of that crop is sold to Europe [1]

   1 Jan 2027

   the day Europe starts refusing cocoa it cannot trace to a plot of land

   every purchase in Ivory Coast has had to use the electronic card since 1 September [1]

   2,737 cedis

   what Ghana proposes paying a farmer for a 64-kilogram bag, up from 2,587

   about $240, and the finance minister has still to approve it [2]

   20,000

   payment terminals the Ivorian cocoa regulator says it has bought

   exporters say many cooperatives and field agents have none yet [1]

   What happened

   • Ivorian cocoa traders, cooperatives and buying agents say they cannot work the national tracking system that became compulsory on 1 September. [1]
   • From that date every cocoa purchase in the country must go through an electronic producer card, so each bag can be traced back to the farm it grew on. [1]
   • The card exists because of a European law: from 1 January 2027 the European Union will refuse cocoa grown on land cleared of forest in recent years. [1]
   • Ivory Coast produces about 40% of the world's cocoa and sends around 70% of its own crop to Europe. [1]
   • Exporters say cooperatives and field agents have still not received the payment terminals, bags and seals the system needs. [1]
   • The Coffee and Cocoa Council, the state body that runs the sector, says it has bought 20,000 new terminals and is handing them out by last season's purchase volumes. [1]
   • Its director, Yves Brahima Kone, says the difficulties are real but not serious, and that buying will pick up over a few months. [1]
   • Exporters expect deliveries to run late through October and November, the months when most of the season's beans are bought. [1]
   • Ghana's cocoa regulator has proposed paying its farmers about 6% more, at 2,737 cedis per 64-kilogram bag, up from 2,587. [2]
   • That is roughly $240 a bag, and it widens the gap over the price next door in Ivory Coast, which risks more beans being carried over the border. [2]
   • Nestle, one of the world's biggest chocolate makers, is meanwhile buying more cocoa in Brazil, where farms were replanted after a fungus destroyed the old plantations in the 1970s. [5]
   • The same European law covers wood, and only 11% of timber companies can currently prove that 90% of their wood was not cut from recently cleared forest. [3]

   Who is involved

   • The Coffee and Cocoa Council the Ivorian state body that sets cocoa rules and prices; it made the electronic card compulsory
   • Yves Brahima Kone the council's director; he says the problems are not serious and will clear in a few months
   • The Ghana Cocoa Board the state body next door that fixes what Ghanaian farmers are paid; it has proposed the 6% rise
   • The European Union the group of 27 countries that buys most West African cocoa; its deforestation law is what the card system is for

   How it unfolded

   1. Twice delayed Europe's deforestation law is pushed back before taking effect
   2. 1 September every cocoa purchase in Ivory Coast must use the electronic producer card
   3. 9 September exporters say the system is not working and deliveries are slowing
   4. 9 September Ghana's regulator proposes paying farmers about 6% more
   5. 1 January 2027 Europe starts refusing cocoa that cannot be traced to its plot

   Why it matters

   Watch the October and November buying months: if the card system is still short of terminals, the first sign will be Ivorian exporters missing shipment dates rather than any announcement.

   The truth

   • What is really going on Ivory Coast has told every cocoa buyer to record each purchase on an electronic card, and the traders say the card readers have not reached the villages.At the same time Ghana has proposed paying its own farmers about 6% more, which gives Ivorian beans a reason to leave the country in a sack rather than through the system.
   • Who gains Ghana's cocoa farmers — Their regulator has proposed 2,737 cedis a bag, more than farmers are paid next door in Ivory Coast. [2]
   • Who gains Brazil's cocoa growers — Nestle is expanding its buying there, on farms replanted with hardier trees after a fungus destroyed the old plantations. [5]
   • Who pays Ivorian cooperatives and buying agents — They must record every purchase on a terminal that many of them say has not arrived. [1]
   • Who pays Ivorian farmers waiting to sell — Exporters expect deliveries to run late through October and November, the heaviest buying months of the season. [1]
   • Nobody knows yet

     How much Ivorian cocoa is actually being bought through the electronic card.

     The Coffee and Cocoa Council says it has bought 20,000 terminals and is handing them out by last season's volumes, but no figure has been published for purchases recorded so far. [1]

   • Nobody knows yet

     Whether Europe's deforestation rule really starts when the cocoa trade thinks it does.

     One account has the law taking effect at the end of this year, while the Ivorian cocoa rules are written for 1 January 2027, and neither source resolves the gap. [1][3]

   • Nobody knows yet

     Whether Ghana's 6% rise will be paid.

     Bloomberg reports the price still needs the finance minister's approval, and the people describing it asked not to be named because the details are private. [2]

   • Nobody knows yet

     How many beans cross the Ghana-Ivory Coast border outside the system.

     Smuggling is uncounted by definition, and the report names the risk without putting a volume on it. [2]

1. 02

   UN report: closing borders makes a shortage worse

   What happened

   • The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization has published its main report on food trade, looking at wheat, maize and rice, the three crops most of the world eats.
   • It finds that when bad weather wrecks a harvest in a big exporting country, that country's exports drop at once and usually recover within about six months. [6]
   • It also finds that governments banning exports to protect their own shoppers make the shortage deeper for everyone. [6]
   • Global food trade is now worth about $2 trillion a year, almost five times what it was in 2000. [6]

   Why it matters

   Cereals supply about 45% of the calories in countries that import most of their food, so a price jump abroad reaches those kitchens fast. [6]

   The truth

   • Who pays Households in countries that import most of their food — Cereals are about 45% of their calories, so a jump in the world price reaches their kitchens quickly. [6]

   Good news

   • The UN's food agency looked at two decades of weather shocks and found that when a big exporting country loses a harvest, its trade usually recovers within about six months. Food trade kept growing even in years when trade in everything else shrank.

1. 03

   Only one timber firm in nine can show where its wood came from

   What happened

   • The European law that is forcing Ivorian cocoa onto an electronic card also covers wood and paper. [1][3]
   • Importers will have to give the exact map coordinates of the plot each shipment came from.
   • Only 11% of timber companies can currently prove that 90% of their wood was not cut from recently cleared forest. [3]
   • Wildfires caused about 30% of the world's tree cover loss between 2001 and 2025, and logging about 25%. [3]
   • Demand for wood is expected to rise 37% by 2050. [3]

   Why it matters

   The illegal timber trade is worth up to $152 billion a year and about a fifth of it is thought to reach Europe, so if the rule holds that wood has to find buyers who do not ask. [3]

   How it works

   Europe asks for proof, and a buying agent in a village has to make it

   Europe will soon refuse cocoa it cannot trace to a plot of land, and the record has to be made where the beans are bought.

   The twist

   The rule is aimed at a company in Europe, and the work of proving it lands on a buying agent in a village who was handed a deadline and no card reader.

   Step by step

   1. 1 A buyer's government writes a rule about how food was grown
   2. 2 Nobody in Europe can see the farm, so the rule becomes a demand for paperwork
   3. 3 The paperwork has to be made at the far end, by a farmer or a village buying agent
   4. 4 They are given the deadline but not the card readers, so buying slows down
   5. 5 Beans that move outside the system carry no record at all

   The same force, elsewhere today

   Where this chain is also running, in today's other stories.

   • Timber under the same European law

     the proof is demanded of importers, and only one timber firm in nine can currently show where 90% of its wood came from

   • Japan's wood pellets from Indonesia

     the same step is simply missing: Japan's subsidy pays for the pellet and nobody checks which forest the wood was cut from

   • 'Regenerative' farming at Climate Week

     no inspection stands behind the word, so a company's own account of its farms is the only record there is

   • xFarm buying Brazil's sugarcane data

     the proof is being sold as a product, because the mills and farms cannot produce it on their own

   Where you've seen this

   Second-hand cars

   a car with no service receipts sells for less, even when it was serviced properly

   Renting a flat

   a tenant who paid rent in cash for years has nothing to show a new landlord

   Doctors who move country

   years of surgery count for nothing without the certificates a war destroyed

   The catch

   Paperwork can be bought or faked, and a rule that is too hard to satisfy pushes the trade towards buyers who ask for nothing.

   And the whole of it

   Every one of these records ends up inside something ordinary: a chocolate bar, a floorboard, a bag of sugar in a Mogadishu market. Nobody in that chain sees more than the step in front of them, and the person asked to write the record down is a buying agent in a village who is still waiting for his card reader.

   The truth

   • Who gains Timber buyers outside Europe — Wood that cannot prove where it grew has to find markets that do not ask, and the illegal trade is already worth up to $152 billion a year. [3]

1. 04

   Japan's power stations are burning Indonesian forest

   What happened

   • Japan burns wood pellets alongside coal in its power stations and counts them towards its renewable energy targets.
   • Indonesia has become its biggest supplier.
   • New research by the groups Earth Insight, Auriga Nusantara and an Indigenous peoples' alliance counted at least 45 biomass permits already granted in Indonesia, covering more than 750,000 hectares of natural forest. [7]
   • Timer Manurung, who runs Auriga Nusantara, said the biomass industry has become a new driver of deforestation there. [7]
   • Bioenergy use worldwide rose more than 55% between 2015 and 2024. [7]

   Why it matters

   Isolated forest communities such as the Polahi live inside some of those permit areas, and many scientists say burning wood can release more carbon than the coal it replaces. [7]

   How it works

   the same step is simply missing: Japan's subsidy pays for the pellet and nobody checks which forest the wood was cut from

   The idea, in story 03: Europe asks for proof, and a buying agent in a village has to make it →

   The truth

   • Who gains Japan's power companies — Burning Indonesian wood pellets alongside coal counts towards Japan's renewable energy targets. [7]
   • Who pays The Polahi and other forest communities in Indonesia — At least 45 biomass permits cover more than 750,000 hectares of the natural forest they live in. [7]
   • Nobody knows yet

     How much of Japan's pellet supply comes from natural forest rather than waste wood.

     The research counted permits, not shipments, and describes weak oversight of the supply chain rather than a measured share. [7]

2. 05

   Somali traders bring sugar straight from Sri Lanka

   What happened

   • Fighting in Yemen has made the strait at the mouth of the Red Sea dangerous for shipping.
   • Somali importers used to bring goods from Asia through Gulf ports in the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Saudi Arabia.
   • Mohamed Ali Nur, who directs the port of Mogadishu, said it has now taken in a ship carrying sugar directly from Sri Lanka for the first time. [8]
   • The UN migration agency said more than 85,000 people have been displaced inside Yemen since the start of this month. [8]

   Why it matters

   Somalia buys most of its everyday food by sea, so a longer or more complicated route eventually shows up as a higher price in Mogadishu's markets. [8]

   The truth

   • Who pays Somali shoppers — Longer shipping routes add cost and delay to food that arrives by sea, and Somalia buys most of its food that way. [8]
   • Nobody knows yet

     How long Somali importers can keep buying direct.

     The Mogadishu port director described the sugar shipment from Sri Lanka as a first, not as a standing arrangement. [8]

   Good news

   • Mogadishu's port has taken in a ship carrying sugar straight from Sri Lanka, the first time it has done so, after fighting in Yemen made the usual route through the Gulf unsafe.
3. 06

   A Kentucky lamb buyer left sellers unpaid

   What happened

   • American law gives a livestock buyer one business day to pay for animals it has taken.
   • The US Department of Agriculture says Bluegrass Lamb Company of Glendale, Kentucky, and its owner Valerie Samutin failed to pay $231,815 for livestock between February and April 2024. [9]
   • The department filed a complaint in April this year and signed a settlement on 25 August, announced on 9 September. [9]
   • At the time of the complaint $164,712 was still owed. [9]
   • The company agreed not to operate as a meat packer until a Kentucky court case is resolved. [9]

   Why it matters

   The sellers are individual sheep farmers, and the payment rule exists because a farmer who has already handed over the animals cannot get them back. [9]

   The truth

   • Who pays Sheep farmers in Kentucky — They handed over their animals and $164,712 was still unpaid when the US agriculture department filed its complaint. [9]
   • Nobody knows yet

     How much the Kentucky sheep farmers will get back.

     The settlement orders Bluegrass Lamb Company to stop failing to pay, but $164,712 was still outstanding when the complaint was filed and a state court case is unresolved. [9]

4. 07

   Big food firms book 'regenerative' panels for Climate Week

   What happened

   • Danone, Mars and Nestle will each host panels on regenerative farming at Climate Week in New York, which starts on Monday. [10]
   • Sponsors include the grain trader ADM, the snack and drinks maker PepsiCo and the retailer Walmart. [10]
   • Regenerative farming broadly means building up the health of the soil, but the term has no legal definition in the United States and no inspection behind it. [10]
   • A Consumer Reports survey in June found nearly a quarter of Americans had heard of it, up from 18% three years ago. [10]

   Why it matters

   Organic food took until 1990 to get a written US government standard with inspections, and regenerative claims are spreading years before anyone has agreed what they mean. [10]

   How it works

   no inspection stands behind the word, so a company's own account of its farms is the only record there is

   The idea, in story 03: Europe asks for proof, and a buying agent in a village has to make it →

   The truth

   • Nobody knows yet

     What 'regenerative' will legally mean.

     The term is unregulated in the United States and the companies hosting panels on it next week have agreed no common test. [10]

5. 08

   Ugandan farmers priced a carbon scheme at $54 a hectare

   What happened

   • Carbon projects pay farmers to grow trees among their crops and sell the carbon those trees store to companies elsewhere.
   • Researchers writing in Nature asked smallholders in rural Uganda what it would take to join one.
   • The answer came out at about $54 per hectare per year. [11]
   • Every extra dollar offered raised the chance of joining by about 1%, and farmers who had grown trees among crops before were 22% more likely to sign up. [11]
   • Uncertainty about the price cut it by about 4%. [11]

   Why it matters

   The same payment looked generous to one farmer and not worth the risk to another, depending on what else they had to fall back on. [11]

6. 09

   Ten places heat breaks a food supply chain

   What happened

   • The trade publication FoodNavigator set out ten points where a warming climate is already slowing food down.
   • Recent European heatwaves have caused about 1.8 billion euros of damage, and no major European crop escaped this year's droughts. [4]
   • Heat makes cows give less milk and hens lay thinner-shelled eggs. [4]
   • Steel railway lines expand and buckle in heat, and about 9.9% of the world's food moves by rail. [4]
   • Low water from drought has slowed ships through the Panama Canal, which carries close to three-quarters of Japan's maize. [4]

   Why it matters

   Nearly 59% of the distance food travels is over water, so a canal or a strait is a narrower point in the system than any one farm. [4]

7. 10

   A record soybean crop almost nobody eats as beans

   What happened

   • American farmers are expected to harvest a record 4.52 billion bushels of soybeans this year, according to the US Department of Agriculture. [12]
   • At 60 pounds to the bushel that is roughly 800 pounds for every American, and almost none of it is eaten as a bean. [12]
   • Soybean oil is in salad dressing, mayonnaise, baked goods, infant formula and fried food, and soy lecithin holds chocolate and bread together. [12]
   • Between 1942 and 1972 American butter fell from 16.4 to 5 pounds a person while margarine rose from 2.9 to 11.1. [12]

   Why it matters

   A federal rule finalised in March raised how much renewable fuel refiners must blend, which pulls more soybean oil away from food and into diesel. [12]

8. 11

   Tea with a meal blocks some of the iron in it

   What happened

   • Too much iron in the body can scar the liver and weaken the heart.
   • Some people inherit a condition that makes them absorb too much of it from food, and others build it up from repeated blood transfusions.
   • Researchers reviewed 40 sources on food, drink and supplements. [13]
   • Tea contains polyphenols, plant substances that latch onto iron from plant foods and make it harder to take in. [13]
   • In one trial of 18 people, those drinking tea with every meal stored about a third less iron over a year. [13]

   Why it matters

   The trial was small and the difference between the tea and water groups was not statistically significant, so the reviewers put diet alongside medical treatment rather than in place of it. [13]

   The truth

   • Nobody knows yet

     Whether tea makes any real difference to iron overload.

     The trial had 18 people and the difference between the tea and water groups was not statistically significant. [13]

9. 12

   An Italian farm-software firm buys Brazil's sugarcane data

   What happened

   • xFarm, an Italian company that sells software for running farms, has bought Sibium Analytics of Brazil. [14]
   • Sibium maps sugarcane fields from satellites and produces what it calls audit-ready sustainability certificates for mills and biofuel plants. [14]
   • The purchase takes xFarm to 24 million hectares across more than 600,000 farms, and is its sixth acquisition in four years. [14]
   • Brazil grows around half the world's sugarcane and makes roughly 9% of its own electricity from it. [14]

   Why it matters

   Proving how a crop was grown is becoming something a company buys, at the same moment European rules start demanding that proof. [14]

   How it works

   the proof is being sold as a product, because the mills and farms cannot produce it on their own

   The idea, in story 03: Europe asks for proof, and a buying agent in a village has to make it →

   The truth

   • Who gains Companies that sell traceability software — xFarm has just bought a Brazilian firm whose product is audit-ready sustainability certificates for sugarcane mills. [14]
10. 13

    France's biggest insect farm goes into receivership

    What happened

    • AgFunderNews publishes a weekly roundup of money moving through farming and food technology.
    • This week it reported that Agronutris, one of France's largest insect-protein farms, has been placed under court-supervised receivership. [15]
    • It also listed NotCo, a Chilean plant-based food company, selling its Brazilian business, and the European Investment Fund putting 30 million euros into a Nordic food-technology fund. [15]
    • The African Development Bank announced a plan worth up to $5.1 billion to cushion energy and fertiliser shocks. [15]

    Why it matters

    Insect protein and plant-based meat were two of the last decade's big bets in food technology, and both of the names here are shrinking rather than expanding. [15]

11. 14

    US meat inspectors move on slaughter line speeds

    What happened

    • The US Food Safety and Inspection Service says its rulemaking on how fast slaughter lines may run is now underway. [16]
    • Waivers already letting some plants run faster will stay in place while comments on the rule are considered. [16]
    • The agency also named Gabrial Eddings as head of its Office of Public Health Science and Glenn Tillman, who has worked there for over 25 years, as his deputy. [16]
    • It is field-testing dashboards that flag risk patterns from weekly listeria questionnaires. [16]

    Why it matters

    Line speed decides how many seconds an inspector has to look at each carcass, so a waiver is a food-safety decision as much as a productivity one. [16]

12. 15

    India's packaged food market passes $137bn

    What happened

    • India's packaged food market grew to $137.25 billion this year from $129.18 billion last year, and the research firm IMARC expects it to reach $238.83 billion by 2034. [17]
    • About 6 billion of the meals eaten in India each year are Maggi instant noodles, made by the Swiss company Nestle and launched there in 1983. [17]
    • India has more than 101 million people living with diabetes and 136 million more showing early signs of it, according to figures from the drugmaker Novo Nordisk. [17]

    Why it matters

    Nestle makes Maggi with palm oil in India and with pricier sunflower oil in Britain, and its Indian KitKat carries less cocoa than the Australian one; the company says its recipes follow local taste, ingredient supply and climate. [17]

    The truth

    • Who gains Nestle in India — It sells Maggi noodles made with palm oil rather than the pricier sunflower oil used in Britain, in its fastest-growing region. [17]