According to Ivorian cocoa exporters cited by the Reuters agency, 50,000 tonnes of beans would have illegally left the country towards Guinea in the last quarter of 2024. While a tonne of cocoa trades around $12,000 on the markets international markets – a price four times higher than that guaranteed in Côte d’Ivoire – the phenomenon would grow.
1 minute
with our correspondent in Abidjan, Benoît Almeras
Ivorian cocoa producers joined by RFI all agree on the same observation: bean trafficking has taken on worrying proportions in recent weeks in the west of Ivory Coast, where the border town of Danané plays a role as a crossroads. “ Trucks are driving without control! », Alarms the boss of a cooperative. According to him, 4,000 tonnes of cocoa beans leave the country every week towards the Liberia or the Guinea. Worse, according to Reuters this time: 8,400 tonnes vanished on the single day of December 24, Christmas Eve.
Contraband not without consequences
Another weak signal noted in the Ivorian press makes it possible to become aware of the extent of the phenomenon: the interception in Ferké – near the Burkinabe border – of a cargo of 40 tonnes of cocoa leaving from San Pedro, 700 kilometers away south.
In order to fight against this trafficking, the Ivory Coast coffee-cocoa council therefore calls on operators in the sector to collaborate with the competent authorities, it explains to RFI. The fact remains that the head of an agricultural union believes, for his part, that this contraband will not remain without consequences: “ If there is less tax revenue for the State, there will be fewer dispensaries and fewer schools in our countryside. “, he says.
Also readIvory Coast: rise in cocoa price sparks mixed reactions