Poor liquidity within Ivory Coast's banking system caused by the collapse of the top cocoa producer's largest domestic exporter risks hindering exports at the start of the upcoming main crop, exporters and bank officials said.
A sharp drop in world prices in the middle of the 2016/17 season left many local exporters, who had speculated prices would rise, unable to execute their contracts and pay back bank loans.
The country's cocoa industry was already impacted by heavy rains, which hit the country in June.