Close ties to France since independence in 1960, diversification of agricultural exports, and encouragement of foreign investment have been factors in the economic growth of Ivory Coast. In recent years, Ivory Coast has been subject to greater competition and falling prices in the global marketplace for its primary agricultural crops: coffee and cocoa. That, compounded with high internal corruption, makes life difficult for the grower, those exporting into foreign markets, and the labour force, inasmuch as instances of indentured labour have been reported in the country's cocoa and coffee production in every edition of the U.S. Department of Labor's ''List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor'' since 2009.