Hot chocolate: How cocoa fuelled the conflict in Côte d’Ivoire

Côte d’Ivoire is the world’s biggest producer of cocoa, the main ingredient for chocolate.

Yet few of the billions of consumers of chocolate around the world are aware of the role that the cocoa trade has played in the armed conflict and political crisis in Côte d’Ivoire in recent years.

Côte d’Ivoire accounted for around 40% of world cocoa production in 2006. Cocoa is the main economic resource of the country, representing on average 35% of the total value of Ivorian exports, worth around 750 bn CFAii per year ($1.4bn).

Out of a total population of 16 million inhabitants, 3 to 4 million people work in the cocoa sector. About 10 % of the country’s cocoa is grown in the rebel-controlled zone in the north; the rest is grown in the government-controlled south.

This report – Global Witness’s first report dedicated to the cocoa sector in Côte d’Ivoireiii– documents how revenues from the cocoa trade have contributed to funding armed conflict and how opportunities for enrichment from cocoa through corruption and misuse of revenues, both by the government and the rebel group continue to undermine the resolution of the crisis.