In a motion prepared as a prelude to the Workshop-Assessment of the Reform of the Cotton and Cashew Sectors, which took place from November 17 to 21 in Yamoussoukro, actors in the sector expressed their desire to reject a new legal framework and institution of the cashew sector. Here is the entire motion.

As a prelude to the effective start of the work of the Workshop Review of the reform of the Cotton and Cashew Sectors, the four (04) professional families through the representatives of their respective umbrella organizations:

- The National Federation of Cashew Producers of Côte d'Ivoire: FENAPACI

- The National Federation of Cashew Buyers of Côte d'Ivoire: FENACACI

- The Group of Cashew Industrialists of Côte d'Ivoire: GIC-CI

- The Association of Cashew Exporters of Côte d'Ivoire: AEC-CI

Gathered for the purpose of:

- To analyze the Terms of Reference (TOR) and the objectives assigned to this workshop but also and above all;

- To collect and harmonize the various concerns in the best interests of each professional family in the sector.

At the end of this important working and consultation session which was held this Tuesday, November 17, 2020, at ESPACE FANON in YAMOUSSOUKRO, from 9 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., the Platform of Actors in the Cashew Sector lists the findings following:

- The late transmission of the working documents of such an important workshop as that of the reform of our sector: As such, the platform deplores the receipt of the Terms of Reference of the Workshop 72 H before the actual start of the work and for working documents, 48 hours before.

- The lack of prior information of the actors before the programming of the review workshop of the reform

- etc

With regard to the analysis of the working documents of the workshop and in relation to the legal and institutional framework of the sector, the Platform notes that the Cotton and Cashew Council plans to win the right to exercise the activities :

- Local Buyer;

- From Transformer and,

- Exporter, in addition to its role as regulator.

Worse, from its status as an Independent Administrative Authority, the Council wants to win, only in our sector, the right to create companies which will come to compete with the already existing private actors and which have contributed to the emergence of the sector for several decades.

Also, the platform protests against the prerogatives of the Interprofessional Organization of the sector that the Cotton and Cashew Council wants to take over.

She recalls that the CCA, which should rather contribute to the creation of this body, has spent the seven (07) years of its operation ignoring this major objective. To crown the non-achievement of this objective which fell to him at the end of December 2015, he claims by the validation of this workshop, the prerogatives naturally and exclusively reserved to the actors, as a reward for his work of substitution to them.

Faced with this forceful transition and the cavalier method that accompanies it, the Platform of actors whose activities have always been stifled by the Council, rejects en bloc and with the utmost energy the working document relating to the legal and institutional framework which makes of the CCA, the multifunctional player in the sector which will operate duty-free and duty-free, in addition to its role as regulator.

Consequently, it requires the withdrawal of the ToRs and working documents from the workshop, any passage relating to the mutation of the CCA into a Producer, Buyer, Processor, Exporter, Interprofession and Independent and Autonomous Structure with the capacity to create competing companies of those of the actors whose activities it is responsible for regulating.

With regard to these meetings, the platform maintains its participation in the work of the workshop only with a view to taking stock of the reform undertaken since 2013. This report will then be enriched with constructive proposals for a prosperous and sustainable cashew sector. in strict compliance with maintaining the arrangements already made for the creation and operation of the CCA in 2013.

Before closing its motion and taking advantage of this opportunity, the Platform of Actors in the Cashew Sector would like to solemnly express that it is able to comply with all the provisions required for the establishment of the OIA, namely , the Interprofessional Agricultural Organization of the cashew sector.

To this end, and in the weeks to come, it will meet in order to begin this process resolutely.