Over US$118 million from the cocoa trade has funded both sides of the recent armed conflict in Côte d'Ivoire, alleges a new Global Witness report released today. Côte d'Ivoire is the world's biggest producer of cocoa for the global chocolate industry.
The report, Hot Chocolate: how cocoa fuelled the conflict in Côte d'Ivoire, shows how international cocoa-exporting companies have contributed significantly to the finances of both the Ivorian government and the Forces Nouvelles (FN), the rebel group holding on to the northern half of Côte d'Ivoire.
Since September 2002, the fighting in Côte d'Ivoire has claimed thousands of civilian lives and led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people. Poverty is now affecting more than 40% of the population.
"There is a high chance that your chocolate bar contains cocoa from Côte d'Ivoire and may have funded the conflict there, which leaves a bitter taste in the mouth," said Patrick Alley, director at Global Witness. "The chocolate industry should clean up its act and ensure that it only sells conflict-free chocolate."
40% of the world's cocoa comes from Côte d'Ivoire, twice as much as the next biggest supplier, Ghana. Cocoa is the main economic resource of the volatile West African state, representing on average 35% of the total value of Ivorian exports, worth around US$1.4 billion per year.
Hot Chocolate documents patterns of mismanagement of revenues, opacity of accounts, corruption and political favouritism in the cocoa sector in Côte d'Ivoire. It presents detailed evidence showing:
- the diversion of more than US$58 million from cocoa levies to the government's war effort.
- a link between two major Western companies and diversion of some funds from the cocoa trade. Two senior directors of cocoa companies - one from Cocoa SIFCA, the Ivorian subsidiary of US food group Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), the other from Dafci, then owned by French conglomerate Bolloré - were both representing Côte d'Ivoire's biggest exporters' union on the board of the Ivorian cocoa institution, the Bourse du Café et Cacao, at the time the funds were diverted.
- the strategy used by the Forces Nouvelles rebels to raise approximately US$30 million a year by taxing cocoa transiting through the north and preventing northern-produced cocoa from transiting south into the government-controlled zone. This parallel tax system has not only enabled the FN to survive as a movement but has allowed individual FN officials to enrich themselves to the detriment of the population of northern Côte d'Ivoire.
- a pattern of intimidation against those who have investigated or denounced corruption in the cocoa trade - from the disappearance and probable murder of Franco-Canadian journalist Guy-André Kieffer in 2004 to the kidnapping of a French lawyer who was auditing the cocoa sector for the European Union.
Global Witness is calling for action by international companies involved in the cocoa trade: "Consumers should phone the helpline numbers on the back of their chocolate bars and demand that chocolate companies push their suppliers to support farmers, not the war effort. Suppliers should be transparent about where their money goes. They should ensure that it supports development in Côte d'Ivoire and not unaccountable elites on either side of the crisis," said Alley.
At a time when the government and the Forces Nouvelles are attempting to tie up a peace deal, it is crucial that both sides stop diverting cocoa revenues and concentrate on ending patterns of corruption and mismanagement.
The full report, Hot Chocolate: how cocoa fuelled the conflict in Côte d'Ivoire, is available at www.globalwitness.org
For further information, please contact:
In West Africa: Maria Lopez: +221 224 46 55
In the UK: Rosie Sharpe: +44 (0)20 7561 6393/ +44 (0)7884 042 254
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Global Witness is an independent non-governmental organisation which investigates and campaigns on the links between natural resource exploitation, conflict and corruption.
All Global Witness's publications can be found at www.globalwitness.org