Côte d'Ivoire, commonly called Ivory Coast in English, is a country in West Africa. It borders Liberia and Guinea to the west, Mali and Burkina Faso to the north, Ghana to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south. Once one of the most prosperous of the tropical West African states, its economy has been undermined by political turmoil and civil war, spawned by corruption and refusal to adopt reforms.

Maintaining close ties to France since independence in 1960, diversification of agriculture for export, and encouragement of foreign investment, has made Côte d'Ivoire one of the most prosperous of the tropical African states. All though in recent years Côte d'Ivoire has been subject to the global marketplace for their primary agricultural crops Coffee and Cocoa. That compounded with high internal corruption makes life difficult for the grower and those exporting into foreign markets.