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COTE D'IVOIRE
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INTRODUCTION
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Hot Chocolate, Hershey's, Kit
Kat, Twix, M&Ms, is there ever an end
to the amount of products in America
that contain choclate? How would
everyone survive without this necessary
sugar delicacy in their everyday lives?
As we all know chocolate’s unique
taste comes from cocoa beans. So to
keep up with this demand for cocoa beans we import over $1.4 billion dollars worth of cocoa
beans each year and out of that 50% of it comes from the Ivory Coast which is located in West
Africa. (COCOA PRODUCTION - ITB) On top of that we are not even Ivory Coast’s #1 buyer
with Netherlands beating us and buying half a billion more cocoa beans then us each year. With
50% of Ivory Coasts export earnings coming from Cocoa beans no wonder they depend so
much on our chocolate consumption. (COTE D’IVOIRE - The World Fact Book) So how did this
country become so dependent on this crop, and how well is its economy doing depending on
this one vital product? Too see this we have to look back at the country’s history.
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QUICK HISTORY
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COMPANY NAME
In the 1960’s Ivory Coast was under French rule and was made a colony for agriculture.
Since the country had the perfect whether and labor for cocoa beans this cash crop was given
to the farmers to cultivate and was collected and sold by the French for their profit. This steady
crop helped them bring up there GDP by 75% for the first couple of years. This kept on
happening until 1999 when the country was sick and tired of the French rule and they had their
first and only military coup and overthrew the government. Even though they won the new
government had many major problems and the first election was rigged. This split the country
into half and they had a civil war until 2003 when both sides seized fire. four years later both the
rebels and the corrupt government signed a treaty that brought the country back together. In
2010...