Raw material. Will African cocoa farmers still believe in Santa Claus? However, in this festive season, chocolate confectionery is dripping in golden shelves in stores. Ready to seduce the gourmet customer eager to treat themselves to a little sweet treat. But this brilliant window hides a darker back room. Behind the scenes, relations between bean-producing countries, traders and chocolate manufacturers are often strained, even opaque.
This year, all of a sudden, the curtain fell. And the harsh light of the media spotlight has shone on a battle now placed on the public stage. Title of the play: “Cacophonie au pays du cacao”. The offensive was launched Monday, November 30, jointly by Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. Two countries which alone produce nearly two-thirds of the world’s beans. With the desire to create an “OPEC of cocoa”, on the model of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, they decided, this year, to align the price paid to the growers.
In addition, they encouraged the multinational chocolate companies to sit around the table and contribute to tariff aid. Manufacturers have undertaken to pay, from 1er October 2020, a “Decent income differential” of 400 dollars (328.70 euros) per tonne, in addition to the price of the commodity listed in London. A little butter for the cocoa farmers.
Half of planters live below the poverty line
However, the Ivory Coast and Ghana openly accuse the American groups Hershey and Mars of not playing the game. Hershey would have turned to the New York futures market to do his shopping, in order to avoid the premium. Purchases that have boiled the price of cocoa on this listing. The confectioner saw, in retaliation, his certification programs for sustainable cocoa production suspended by the authorities. The two companies concerned responded by denying the merits of these accusations and protesting their good faith.
Friday, December 4, the public body that manages the cocoa sector in Côte d’Ivoire finally lifted its sanctions, according to a letter addressed to Hershey. “This lifting of the suspension follows your final commitment to pay the DRD” (decent income differential), writes general manager Yves Koné to the giant American chocolate maker.
The subject is sensitive when, according to the World Bank, half of African planters live below the poverty line. And that the latter should benefit from an increase of 20%, with a price set at 1000 CFA francs (1.52 euros) per kilo of brown beans. A promise made when the President of Côte d’Ivoire, Alassane Ouattara, has just won his re-election against a background of strong tensions and that his Ghanaian counterpart, Nana Akufo-Addo, is seeking a new mandate on December 7. The planters do not want a chocolate medal …
