New Delhi, Jan. 22 -- Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa producer, said it will buy unsold cocoa stocks to keep exports flowing and ensure farmers are paid, as global prices have plunged in recent months.

Since October, falling global cocoa prices in the West African country have slowed exports, causing unsold stocks to build up.

Synapci, the Ivory Coast's main cocoa farmers' union, estimates that 700,000 tons of cocoa remain unsold and therefore unpaid. Some farmers, deprived of income for nearly two months, have been forced to sell their stock at a discount or destroy rotten cocoa, plunging them into severe hardship.

"We want to reassure them," Agriculture Minister Kobenan Kouassi Adjoumani told reporters on Tuesday. "The situation i...