(Bloomberg) -- Ivory Coast said it can compensate cocoa exporters for contracts that were rolled over, but not for the full tonnage that shippers are seeking, according to people familiar with the matter.

The regulator in the top grower met with exporters on Tuesday to discuss compensating companies for losses caused by a surprise increase in the price paid to farmers. Shippers had been asked to roll contracts forward due to unprecedented harvest shortages, but don’t want to pay more for the beans after Ivory Coast raised regulated prices.

Regulator Le Conseil du Cafe-Cacao, known as CCC, can fully compensate for the difference between the price for the main crop and the higher price for the mid-crop, the smaller of two annual harvests, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the details are private. While exporters want compensation for about 150,000 tons of rolled-over contracts, the CCC is prepared to cover a smaller amount, the people said, without specifying how much.

The CCC is conducting its own audit on the volume of rolled-over contracts that should be compensated for, two of the people said.

Traders were concerned that faced with potential losses, exporters would fail to fulfill their contracts, threatening to worsen a global shortage that sent cocoa futures soaring to a record high this year. In an April 17 letter to the CCC, the exporters group known as Gepex said the losses would total 75 billion CFA francs ($123 million).

Read More: Ivory Coast Asks Buyers to Wait for Beans Amid Cocoa Frenzy

The CCC is also considering reforming the way in which exporters buy beans from farmers, the people said. That could include farmer cooperatives being assigned exporters to sell their cocoa to in a bid to help traders secure beans even when supplies are tight, the people said.

A spokeswoman for the CCC didn’t answer calls seeking comment.

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