非洲国家普遍采取了咖啡和可可的商品委员会制度，其初衷是在丰收年份收购剩余供给，以便在需求过剩时出售，从而稳定价格；但实际上，在独立的最初数十年里，在政治上处于弱势的可可和咖啡农民获得的收购价总是低于世界价格。
Although the original rationale was to buy the crop in years of excess supply and sell in years of excess demand, thereby stabilizing prices, in practice the price paid to cocoa and coffee farmers, who were politically weak, was always below the world price in the early decades of independence.