FMO provides Ivory Cocoa Products €20m working-capital facility in Côte d’Ivoire

FMO has provided Ivory Cocoa Products with a €20m working-capital facility to finance cocoa-bean procurement as the Ivorian processor seeks to maintain reliable supplies during continued volatility in global cocoa markets.

The four-year facility is divided into a €15m committed tranche and €5m uncommitted tranche, an important distinction because the full €20m should not be treated as committed funding available from the outset. FMO said the money will support purchases of sustainably sourced cocoa beans for processing in Côte d’Ivoire.

Ivory Cocoa Products, or ICP, operates from San-Pédro and has expanded its processing capacity to about 90,000 tonnes. The transaction is FMO’s third investment in the company since 2019. Most of ICP’s cocoa is sourced from Rainforest Alliance-certified farmer cooperatives, according to the development bank.

The financing has a direct commodity working-capital function. Cocoa processors need liquidity to procure beans before those raw materials have been converted into butter, liquor and cake and sold into international markets. A dedicated procurement line can therefore support the inventory stage of the cash conversion cycle, particularly when commodity-price volatility increases the amount of cash needed to secure a similar physical volume.

FMO has not disclosed pricing, borrowing-base mechanics, security, utilisation conditions for the uncommitted tranche or whether advances will be linked directly to eligible inventories or procurement contracts.

The transaction also connects commodity finance with Côte d’Ivoire’s effort to retain more value from the cocoa trade domestically. The country produces about 40% of global cocoa, according to FMO, but a significant share is exported before being converted into higher-value semi-finished products. ICP processes beans locally and sells the resulting cocoa products internationally.

Its collaboration with Theobroma, the Amsterdam-based cocoa trader owned by ECOM Agroindustrial, provides access to international markets and technical expertise. That gives the working-capital facility a trade dimension beyond domestic bean procurement, linking local processing capacity with export demand.

For financiers, the deal illustrates how relatively long-dated committed liquidity can be used to support a recurring seasonal procurement requirement in a commodity market where raw-material values can move sharply.