The cocoa connection: How 'brown gold' is smuggled between Ivory Coast, Liberia and Guinea

Ivory Coast, the world's leading cocoa producer, is grappling with significant issues including illegal cocoa smuggling, deforestation, and traceability problems.

Farmers, dissatisfied with state-set prices, sell cocoa to traffickers who resell it in neighboring Guinea and Liberia for higher profits, leading to a €400 million loss for the Ivorian government.

Cocoa farming also drives massive deforestation, with 90% of forests lost in 60 years.

The EU plans to ban imports of untraceable cocoa by year-end, pushing farmers into Liberia where unchecked cocoa farming threatens 250,000 hectares of virgin forest.

This exacerbates traceability challenges as deforested cocoa beans are sold back to Ivory Coast.