Summary
This note is a complementary explainer to the publication ‘Components for creating living income policy initiatives: Insights from 3 policy case studies’ (2026) co-authored by Joost Backer, Anna Laven, Christopher Wunderlich, and Friedel Hütz-Adams.
This note specifically forms a companion to the case study focused on the Living Income Differential (LID) implemented in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana in 2019. A key lesson of the policy was the need to better understand how the futures market influences cocoa prices. This is due to the fact some industry members resisted a cocoa floor price and later the LID because it affected commercial interest, disturbed the preferred market set up and presented the potential to create additional costs and risks for companies. This resistance affected the policy’s implementation and ultimately the initiative’s ability to support farmers in attaining a living income.