In a press release published on Friday, April 2, at the initiative of some thirty organizations, the reduction of the cocoa price to the producer by 25% is seen as a step towards a global multi-actor dynamic aimed at fairer regulation in the sector to get more yields for producers.
The Coffee and Cocoa Council (CCC) has justified the lower price through overproduction and falling global demand. Julie Stoll, Delegate for Fair Trade in France: “With the Covid-19 crisis, there is tension over demand and at the same time there has been a fairly good harvest. So there is a small difference between supply and demand. When we say reduced demand, it is the reduction in demand from multinational companies, we are not sure today that there is a real reduction in chocolate consumption. So there is a tension in the prices because cocoa does not leave, cocoa is not bought. Producers may not be the only variable that adjusts supply and demand. CCC had no choice but to lower this price. ”
“Multinational companies can fulfill their contracts”
According to the signatory organizations, it is rather multinational companies in the sector that sabotage all initiatives to better pay producers. Multinational companies participating in “a decent deviation” with producers.
Julie Stoll, for her part, believes that one may have made an attempt from multinational companies: “We have a small overproduction, the multinational companies could fulfill their contracts, buy the same quantities as previous years and definitely some stock., Cocoa paste is stored very well. And “They do not. They reduce their purchases or buy elsewhere. The result is that it puts Ivorian cocoa farmers crazy who cannot sell their goods.”
►Listen: Cocoa: Ivorian cocoa traders demand end of “multinational monopoly”
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