* Cocoa exporters unable to shift beans because no ships
* Gbagbo's government seen as becoming desperate for cash
By Ange Aboa
ABIDJAN, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Ivory Coast's cocoa regulator said on Thursday it would recover export taxes from companies for the cocoa in their warehouses, even if Western sanctions prevent them from exporting it.
It also said there were still around 300,000 tonnes of cocoa left to come out of farms in the 2010/11 season, which can go nowhere while European Union and U.S. sanctions prevent shipping.
The figure includes the mid-crop from April to September.
But while acknowledging that sanctions meant exporters could not sell their cocoa, Coffee and Cocoa Management Committee president Gilbert Anoh said they would be forced to pay export duties on it regardless. "The exporters will pay their taxes, I tell you," Anoh told Reuters in an interview.
"By March 31 we will recover all royalties from the cocoa in warehouses. Whether or not it gets exported, it will be paid."
The cocoa industry in the world's top grower is slowing to a halt due partly to EU and U.S. measures imposed on Gbagbo to starve him of funds and partly to the collapse of the banking system, which has dried up liquidity.
The EU has barred all EU companies from doing business with Ivorian institutions seen backing Gbagbo -- such as the cocoa regulator and the ports -- after he refused to step down following a disputed Nov. 28 poll that the electoral commission said he won. A pro-Gbabgo legal body reversed the result.
Similar measures are in place in the United States.
Ouattara, internationally recognised as president elect but unable to take power, called for a one-month cocoa ban in January month that he is expected to renew on Feb. 23.
Anoh said this was not the reason for slower exports.
"It's not the intervention of Ouattara stopping exports but the ban imposed by the EU," he said. "The maritime embargo prevents exporters from operating (and is) stopping ships coming."
Exporters have stopped registering new beans for export and have stopped buying beans up-country. This has led to a collapse of farmgate prices to around half their pre-crisis levels.
"The ones who are suffering are the farmers, who worked all year and now can't sell their cocoa," Anoh said. "We have revised our estimate (of the remaining crop on farms) to 300,000 tonnes by the end of September. This is what worries us." (Writing by Tim Cocks, editing by Jane Baird)