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 in a move that could affect the world market.

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 cocoa port after the commercial capital of Abidjan.

Union leaders said they planned to stop trucks carrying cocoa and other farm products such as papayas and bananas to the southern port of Abidjan until the price is raised.

The action comes days after authorities officially opened the harvesting season by announcing a retail price of about 40 cents per pound - far below farmers' expectations. Cocoa association President Henri Amouzou said farmers want about 57 cents per pound.

The retail price sets a benchmark for farmers who plan to sell their beans to local buyers.

Ivory Coast's 700,000 increasingly impoverished cocoa farmers have expressed increasing discontent with the pricing system, saying they don't have enough ready cash to send their children to school.

Amouzou said farmers also demand the government slash the main cocoa export tax by 45 percent to allow local buyers and exporters to pay farmers a higher price.

Current export taxes are 20 cents per pound. Cocoa taxes are the main source of government revenue and have been used in the past to buy arms and military equipment, according to U.N. experts.

Most cocoa farms are in the fertile south of Ivory Coast and were less affected than other areas of the country by civil war that broke out after a failed coup four years ago. The nation has since been split between a government-controlled south and a rebel-held north.

Finance Minister Charles Diby Koffi said earlier this month the government would not reduce taxes this season.

``The country is still in crisis. A cut can't be done this season,'' he said.

The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have repeatedly called for more transparency in the country's cocoa sector, which produces nearly 1.4 million tons of beans a year.

Monday October 16, 2006

By PAULINE BAX, Associated Press Writer