Chocolate rush sparks land disputes
A rush to cash in on high cocoa prices is turning neighbours into knaves.
Francis Tim Mbom in Limbe
Farmers in Kumba and other areas of Cameroon’s southwest region have started planting more cocoa beans. This is for two reasons: the recent spike in world market prices for the beans used to make chocolate, and a reduction in hostilities between warring parties in the Anglophone conflict.
In late 2023, there was a significant drop in cocoa exports from Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, the world’s top two producers. Farmers there were severely affected by extreme weather events linked to El Niño. This led to a price surge: today, cocoa goes for as much as $8 per kilogram, up from around $2.40.
Cameroon is the world’s fifth-largest cocoa producer. Its cocoa farms tend to be further from the coast and were spared the worst effects of El Niño. Although Kumba, the country’s cocoa-producing hub, is located in the Anglophone region – gripped by a secessionist conflict since 2017 – hostilities are reducing. According to an analysis of incident reports collated by the Armed Conflict Events Data Project, attacks by both rebel and government soldiers this year are down 46% compared with the first seven months of 2023.
Relative peace is allowing people to return to farming while high cocoa prices last. But the potential for a windfall is sparking messy fights over land use, with some landlords attempting to walk back land-lease agreements to profit themselves.
The potential for a windfall is sparking messy fights over land use, with some landlords attempting to walk back landlease agreements in order to profit for themselves.
“Some farm owners who had leased out their farms turn round to sue those they leased to for ‘destruction,’” says Talla Agah Kitts, a Kumba-based lawyer. He says the number of clients he is representing in such cases has risen sharply. He often advises parties to settle out of court to save time because the informal agreements typically entered are usually not legally airtight.
In some cases, family members turn on each other. Mossongo Nosaka and Illorson Solomon started farming their inherited land two years ago when an aunt peacefully vacated it. She had held and farmed it in trust since their father’s passing 10 years ago when Nosaka and Solomon were minors. With cocoa prices rising lately, the aunt has allegedly pushed the young men off the land, and they have asked a court to intervene.
According to one police officer at Kumba’s Central Police Station, the station handled at least 10 complaints related to breaches of long-held land leases in May and June alone. “These complaints will certainly increase further when the farmers start harvesting in September, October and November,” says the officer.
The cocoa rush may not last forever, however. Last month, the New York-based Nasdaq stock exchange reported that cocoa prices had fallen to a one-month low due to better-growing conditions in West Africa this year. In addition, Nestlé – one of the world’s biggest chocolate producers – is predicting a drop in demand for chocolate as the high prices over the past year are passed down to consumers. This may also cause a dip in the price of cocoa.