10 Things You Didn't Know About Ivory Coast

Top 10 things you didn’t know about Ivory Coast

Hello Displorers, Welcome back to another fascinating video and thanks for watching. As you already know displorers, Its always a pleasure presenting to you some interesting but lesser known facts about the beautiful countries on the African continent. In this video, we take you on a beautiful journey to west Africa as we bring you the 10 things you didn’t know about Ivory Coast. The Republic of Côte d'Ivoire is a country located on the south coast of West Africa. It borders Guinea and Liberia to the west, Burkina Faso and Mali to the north, Ghana to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea (Atlantic Ocean) to the south. The area became a protectorate of France in 1843 and was consolidated as a French colony in 1893 amid the European scramble for Africa. It achieved independence in 1960. Ivory Coast has a surface area of about 322,463 km2 and a population of about 24 million people. The capital city of the country is yamoussoukro and Abidjan is the Economic Hub of the country. When it comes to west Africa, Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire) probably isn’t the first country you think of. Most people are much more familiar with Nigeria, Ghana, and Senegal. But despite being lesser-known, Ivory Coast is well worth knowing about. It has a long and storied history, like many of the other countries in the region, and unique cultural customs.

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Come alog with us as we present to you 10 things you didn’t know about Ivory Coast.

1. It is the world’s largest cocoa of producer

The Ivory coast is the world leader in the production and export of cocoa beans. The country produces around 1/3 of the entire world’s supply of cocoa. Most of the beans are grown by shareholding farmers on small plots throughout the country. In 2013 it shifted 1.448million metric tonnes of cocoa beans (31.6 percent of the world’s total), nearly double its nearest rival, Ghana. Large chocolate producers such as Cadbury, Hershey's, and Nestle buy Ivorian cocoa futures and options through Euronext whereby world prices are set.


2. It has the largest church in the world

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Yamoussoukro is the largest church in the world. It has an area of 30,000 square meters and passed St. Peter’s Basilica when it was built. The cost to build it certainly wasn’t cheap, and the total came in at an astounding US$300 million. Finished in 1990, its design is said to have been inspired by its Vatican City sibling, with a hefty dose of Renaissance and Baroque style. It can hold about 18,000 worshipers, though is very rarely full.

3. It is one of the largest producer of cashew Nuts in the world

From tiny harvests two decades ago, the West African country now holds the cashew crown, supplanting India as the biggest producer of the nut. Helped by price guarantees for farmers, its harvest doubled from 380,000 tonnes in 2013 to 711,000 tonnes in 2017, amounting to 22 percent of global output. This year's production of the nut - known locally as "grey gold" - is expected to attain 750,000 tonnes. Curvy, rich in taste and filled with protein, the cashew is a familiar ingredient in salads, stir-fries, and other meals. But it also features in a widening range of other food products including cashew butter and cheese, and its oil has found uses in medicine, industrial resins, and cosmetics. Currently, the sector includes 250,000 producers grouped into a score of cooperatives and employs some 1.5 million people, directly or indirectly.




4. Life is expectancy is low in Ivory Coast

While Africa is the only continent that contains nations where the average life expectancy is below 60 - and there are 21 of them - the fifth lowest is in the Ivory Coast, at 53.3 years. The lowest is nearby Sierra Leone at 50.1 years.