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Côte d'Ivoire's Affordability Trap: Why Agricultural Success Doesn't Mean Affordable Healthy Food

  • Writer: Les Africanistes
    Les Africanistes
  • Nov 27, 2025
  • 3 min read

Two agricultural powerhouses. Similar export profiles. One crucial difference: what citizens actually earn.


Côte d'Ivoire produces 45% of the world's cocoa and 40% of the world's cashews. Côte d'Ivoire exports $7-9.8 billion in agricultural products vs. Kenya's ~$3 billion in tea, flowers, coffee, and vegetables.


Both countries depend heavily on agriculture: roughly 40% of their workforces farm, and agricultural products account for 60% of total exports.


A healthy diet in Côte d'Ivoire costs $109 per month. In Kenya, it costs $130. Food is cheaper in Côte d'Ivoire, but affordability is a different story.


Agricultural Success vs. Affordability: The Real Gap Is Income, Not Food Prices

The numbers reveal something striking: Côte d'Ivoire has higher GDP per capita ($2,710 vs. $2,100) and faster economic growth (6.8% vs. 5.6%). Yet the average Ivorian earns $197 per month, less than half what Kenyans earn ($475).


Kenya and Côte d'Ivoire Comparison
Kenya and Côte d'Ivoire Comparison

This is the income paradox. GDP measures all economic activity, including profits flowing to foreign companies. What matters for food affordability is what citizens actually take home. And that's where the models diverge completely.



Two Structural Differences

1. Who Owns the Value Chain

Kenya's model: The Kenya Tea Development Authority (KTDA) is owned by 600,000 smallholder farmers. They own the factories. They control processing. When tea sells globally, farmers capture the margin.

Côte d'Ivoire's structure: Foreign multinationals, Cargill, Barry Callebaut, Olam, control most cocoa grinding capacity. Cashews were historically shipped raw to Vietnam for processing. Even as local processing has expanded (40% of cocoa now ground domestically, up from 30%), ownership remains foreign.

When farmers own factories, income stays local. When foreigners own them, profits leave as repatriated earnings.

2. Where Value Gets Captured

Kenya: Over 50 tea factories owned by farmer cooperatives. Strong dairy processing cooperatives producing yogurt, cheese, and UHT milk. Horticulture pack houses located near farms. Value-added processing means better export prices, local manufacturing jobs, and wealth that stays domestic.

Côte d'Ivoire: Despite becoming the world's largest cocoa grinder (700,000 tons capacity), the fundamental ownership structure hasn't shifted. Processing has relocated to Abidjan, but profits flow to Geneva and Amsterdam as repatriated earnings.

When 40% of the workforce produces only 16.8% of GDP, it signals systematically low value capture and wages.


The Bottom Line

Côte d'Ivoire's challenge isn't agricultural failure, the country produces massive export volumes. GDP grows steadily. Local processing capacity has expanded dramatically. Yet the average worker earns poverty wages because foreign ownership dominates the most profitable segments of the value chain.


The comparison with Kenya's Tea structure reveals what happens when ownership structure differs. Kenyan farmers own cooperatives that process tea and dairy. Income flows regularly to hundreds of thousands of households.


In Côte d'Ivoire, foreign companies own the processing infrastructure. Farmers earn low prices for raw cocoa and cashews, while repatriated profits boost GDP without raising household incomes.

The result: citizens earn little while living in one of the world's fastest-growing economies.


What's your take? Can these structural patterns be reversed, or are they locked in by decades of foreign investment and infrastructure?


About Les Africanistes: We provide market intelligence and business insights for companies operating across African markets, combining local expertise with global investment perspectives. If you are seeking more personalised insights or new partners in Africa.

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Sources:

  • FAO, Cost and Affordability of a Healthy Diet Database (2024)

  • World Bank Open Data: GNI per capita, PPP (2024)

  • World Bank Open Data: GDP per capita, PPP (2024)

  • Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, Economic Survey 2024

  • Kenya Tea Development Authority (KTDA), Annual Report 2023

  • Statista, "Main exports from Kenya between 2015 and 2023" (2024)

  • USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, "Kenya: Exporter Guide Annual" (2024)

  • Ministry of Agriculture, Kenya, Dairy Sector Report 2024

  • African Development Bank, Côte d'Ivoire Economic Outlook 2024

  • Government of Côte d'Ivoire, Agricultural Statistics 2024

  • USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, "Côte d'Ivoire Designates the United States as the SELAB 2026 Country-of-Honor" (2024)

  • Capmad, "Agriculture: Sector Brimming With Opportunities in Côte d'Ivoire" (January 2025)

  • Information and Promotion Portal for the Economy of Côte d'Ivoire, "Industrial and export agriculture" (2024)

  • Agence Française de Développement, "Cocoa farmers' agricultural practices and livelihoods in Côte d'Ivoire" (2023)


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