Yale University EliScholar – A Digital Platform for Scholarly Publishing at Yale Discussion Papers Economic Growth Center 6-1-1972 Exports and Growth in the Ivory Coast: Timber, Cocoa and Coffee J. Dirck Stryke Follow this and additional works at: https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/egcenter-discussion-paper-series Recommended Citation Stryke, J. Dirck, "Exports and Growth in the Ivory Coast: Timber, Cocoa and Coffee" (1972). Discussion Papers. 155. https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/egcenter-discussion-paper-series/155 This Discussion Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Economic Growth Center at EliScholar – A Digital Platform for Scholarly Publishing at Yale. It has been accepted for inclusion in Discussion Papers by an authorized administrator of EliScholar – A Digital Platform for Scholarly Publishing at Yale. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ECONOMIC GROWTH CENTER Yale University Box 1987, Yale Station New Haven, Connecticut CENTER DISCUSSION PAPER NO. 147 EXPORTS AND GROWTH IN THE IVORY COAST: TIMBER, COCOA, AND COFFEE J. Dirck Stryker June 1972 Note: Center Discussion Papers are preliminary materials circulated to stimulate discussion and critical comment. References in publications to Discussion Papers should be cleared with the author to protect the tentative character of these papers. Since the end of the nineteenth century the economic fortunes of the Ivory Coast have depended on a succession of export crops. As along other areas of the West African Coast the most important exports in 1900 were palm oil and kernals. While exports of these products remained roughly constant until World Har II, at which time they declined as the result of competition in supply from more profitable exports, the impetus l for growth came from other sources. For about ten years prior to the First World Har natural rubber, harvested primarily from wild vines, was the most dynamic export, accounting for 45% of the total value of Ivoirian exports in 1912, but it was unable to compete with plantation rubber from Malaysia and exports virtually ceased by 1914. More important for the future of the Ivory Coast were shipments of timber which grew rapidly until, in 1929, they accounted for 31% of the total value of exports. Following Ghana's expansion by thirty years, exports of cocoa from the Ivory Coast grew rapidly during the 1920's to occupy first place, with 37% of the total, in 1929. As cocoa's fortunes slowly declined, relatively if not absolutely, during the next four decades, coffee became the leader, increasing continuously to account for 60% ~fall exports by 1954. But then, to come full circle, exports of timber, which had remained static since 1929, began to increase rapidly during the 1950 1s and 1960's and had overtaken cocoa in relative importance by 1963. It is these last three products with which this essay is concerned. Together they accounted for 76 percent of the total value of exports in &970 ·and for most of .. the 9 percent a~.·or•age anaua:l rate of growth of real J· - 2 - 2 exports over the past 25 years. Our interest, however, is not just in the relative importance of these products but also in the insights provided by the ways in which they differ. The production of coffee and cocoa, for example, takes place almost entirely on small farms cultivated by Africans. The cutting of timber, on the other hand, is accomplished primarily by European owned and managed private companies which use rel­ atively capital-intensive techniques and have many of the characteristics 3 of mining enclaves. The type of capital investment required by coffee and cocoa on the one hand and by timber on the other also differ. Most of the capital which has gone into the creation of coffee and cocoa plantations has come from the labor of Africans who have cleared the forest, planted their trees, and tended them until after several years they begin to bear fruit. It is in the public area that sources of in­ vestment and foreign exchange have been important for the building of roads and port facilities. Forestry, a more capital-intensive operation to start with, has depended to a much greater extent upon foreign private investment for the purchase of trucks and other equipment and for the construction of feeder roads leading into the forest from government­ maintained roads. Finally the development of coffee and cocoa exports has historically been constrained to a greater degree by demand factors than has timber whose main constraints have been those of supply. It is the objective of this essay to see in which ways these and other differences have been related to factors promoting or inhibiting growth of the export sector and of the rest of the economy" For this purpose coffee - 3 - and cocoa will be treated together since they are produced under similar conditions, frequently by the same farmer. In the next section both supply and demand conditions as these have affected export growth will be discussed within their historical context. Thereafter, an analysis will be made of the quantitative impact of that growth on the entire economy. Most of the data for that analysis are taken from the period of the 1960's for which our quantitative knowledge of the local economy is much greater than for earlier periods, Where possible, however, an assessment of the implications of our results for the years prior to independence will be undertaken. In any case it is believed that the current situation cannot be adequately understood without some knowledge of the historical background. I, A History of Timber. Cocoa, and Coffee in the Ivory Coast A. Supply Conditions At the time of colonization by France in the 1890 1 s the Ivory Coast was to the Europeans a largely unexplored and unknow11 area which had been bypassed in favor of more promising centers in Senegal) Ghana or Nigeria. It was soon realized, however, that the forest area in the southern part of the colony especially was a rich natural resource capable of yielding or producing a variety of products. Yet there were a number of things which stood in the way of the development of this region. Foremost among these was at first the need to establish effective military and political control over the countryside to prevent violent conflict and to insure - 4 - 4 the safe and free passage of traders. Other bottlenecks included the inadequacy of the transpoi-tation network, lack of localized knowledge of and experience in tropical agriculture, and the absence of a reliable supply of labor. Transportati.2.!!:_ One of the most rapidly growing exports, timber, though more accessible th,~n in many countries, was nevertheless subject to high costs of transportation. For many years the primary means of transporting logs was by floating them down the rivers and across the lagunes to several ports along the coast. The largest of these was Grand Bassam, where logs were lifted out of the water by crane and into rail cars which carried them to the wharf extending past the surf where they were dumped and floated out to ships at anchor in the roadstead. In other areas they had to be rolled for severc!l kilometers across land separating the lagunes from the sea and towed out through the heavy sutf. In addition to these costly handling operations, loading depended on sea conditions, and long delays and high losses were frequent. As the railroad was extended in 1903 northward from Abidjan new 5 timber concessions tended to be located along this line. It was not until 1932, ,however, that the railroad was linked directly with a newly constructed wharf at Port Bouet, seven miles from Abidjan. By this time, though, the relatively high prices of the J.920zs had given way to the depressed condition of the 1930's. It was not until after the Second World War that the transportation 6/ constraint was, for a time, eased.- With the opening of the Vridi Canal - 5 - in 1951 and the construction of a modern deep-water port at Abidjan,costs of transporting timber were lowered to such an extent that many areas of forest previously unexploitable were now within reach. The result was an enormous expansion of production averaging at 16 percent annual rate of growth from 1950,to 1970. Timber camps continued to be concentrated near the railway and various wate.r1,rre.ysk. for a time since truck transpor­ tation was still relatively expensive and ,-;,as confined to feeding the railroad and lagunes. During the 19SO's, however, public roads were sub­ stantially improved. As the areas near the railroad and waterways were depleted, the center of production shifted westward, and trucking directly to Abidjan became increasingly common. By the late 1960:s, however, transportation distances were such that several species ~ere expected to be no longer profitable within a few years" The construction of a new port at San Pedro in the southwestern part of the country, as part of the 1971-75 Plan, promised to extend timber production for several years, but it was nevertheless clear by 1970 that the frantic previous two decades could not long be continued. Transportation was less of a bottleneck in the case of coffee and cocoa, both of which have a relatively high value in relationship to their bulk. Short hauls of relatively small quantitJ~s could be accomplished by head porterage and the lagunes and railway provided avenues for longer hauls. Still the introduction of the truck and the expansion of the road network during the interwar period opened up many new areas to production. - 6 - But it was the falling costs of transportation during the post World War II period which truly revolutionized agriculture in the forest region of the South.