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ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) - Cocoa farmers across Ivory Coast went on strike Monday, holding back their crops to protest low retail prices and high export taxes. If the action is sustained it could affect the global chocolate industry.
The West African country is the world's top grower of cocoa beans, producing 40 percent of global output each year, according to government statistics, despite being split following a civil war.
"The strike is on ... we called on the farmers to hoard their beans," Koffi Kanga, a representative of the country's cocoa farmers association, said by telephone from San Pedro, Ivory Coast's second-largest cocoa port after the commercial capital of Abidjan.
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