Côte d’Ivoire’s Delayed Cocoa Harvest Raises Risk of Port Congestion Ahead of EU Rules

Côte d’Ivoire is facing a potentially difficult end to the year for its cocoa industry, as a delayed main harvest could push large volumes of beans into the country’s ports at the same time exporters prepare for stricter European Union rules on deforestation.

The world’s largest cocoa producer is expecting the 2026/27 main crop to arrive later than usual, with industry sources warning that the delay could create significant pressure on the ports of Abidjan and San Pedro in November and December.

The concern comes as exporters seek to move cocoa shipments before new EU requirements take effect at the end of the year.

Although the main cocoa season is officially due to begin on September 1, industry sources expect arrivals to remain relatively low during the first weeks of the season.

Weekly arrivals could remain below 15,000 metric tons in September and 25,000 tons in October. Larger volumes are expected to begin arriving in late October or early November, before increasing sharply through December.

One industry source estimated that the main crop could be delayed by eight to 10 weeks.

The delay has been attributed to several factors, including difficult weather conditions, insufficient maintenance of plantations and an unusually strong mid-crop, which affected the development of the main crop.

The issue is not necessarily the total volume of cocoa expected to be produced, but when that cocoa reaches the ports.

The Coffee and Cocoa Council expects the main crop, running from September through February 28, 2027, to generate no more than 1.4 million metric tons. Exporters have estimated production between 1.4 million and 1.45 million tons.

Around 900,000 tons of cocoa could reach Côte d’Ivoire’s ports between October and December 2026.

That would be below the approximately 1.1 million tons recorded during the same period in 2025 and within the normal three-month range of roughly 800,000 to 1 million tons.

But with much of the harvest arriving later than expected, the volumes could become heavily concentrated in a short period.

That raises concerns about storage capacity, transport and port operations.

The timing of the harvest delay is particularly sensitive because of the European Union’s deforestation regulations.

The EU regulation on deforestation-free products requires companies importing commodities such as cocoa to demonstrate that their products are not linked to recent deforestation and comply with traceability requirements.

For Côte d’Ivoire, which sends a large share of its cocoa to European markets, meeting those requirements has become a major logistical and administrative challenge.

The country has been developing digital traceability systems to identify the origin of cocoa beans and the plots where they are produced.

For exporters, the combination of a delayed harvest and new European requirements creates a narrow window in which large quantities of cocoa must be collected, transported, stored, documented and shipped.

If arrivals increase sharply in November and December, the pressure could spread across the entire supply chain.

Trucks will need to move cocoa from producing regions to ports. Warehouses will have to handle larger volumes. Exporters will need to complete documentation and traceability procedures, while ports will have to maintain shipping schedules.

Any bottleneck could increase waiting times and logistics costs.

The potential congestion therefore illustrates a broader challenge facing Côte d’Ivoire: maintaining the efficiency of the world’s largest cocoa export chain while adapting it to increasingly demanding environmental and traceability standards.

Côte d’Ivoire remains at the center of the global cocoa market, but the 2026/27 season could put its supply chain under unusual pressure.

The country is not facing a simple production problem. It is facing a timing problem.

A delayed harvest could push a large share of the crop into the same months when exporters are under pressure to meet new European requirements.

For the cocoa industry, the coming months will therefore be closely watched.

The key question will be whether Côte d’Ivoire can absorb the delayed arrivals without major disruption and whether its ports, storage facilities and traceability systems can handle a potentially intense rush at the end of the year.

For the world’s leading cocoa producer, the challenge is no longer simply to grow the beans.

It is to move them efficiently, trace their origin and get them to global markets on time.