Côte d’Ivoire opened West Africa’s first agricultural commodities exchange last week.
Around $54,000 of raw cashews, kola nuts, and maize were traded in the first 10 minutes of launch, RFI reported.
Seven years in the making, the exchange seeks to replace informal trading practices in eight countries in the region with a regulated platform that adjusts to supply-and-demand changes.
“Such markets allow buyers and sellers to hedge against time fluctuations of prices,” Finn Ole Semrau, a researcher at German think tank the Kiel Institute, told Semafor, saying that hedging was of “special importance given the high volatility in prices of these crops.”
Cashew nuts in particular face a short production season, while maize is key for Côte d’Ivoire’s food security. Cocoa — Côte d’Ivoire’s main agricultural export — is due to be added to the exchange at a later date.
