A high-level meeting on the issue of sustainable cocoa was held Friday in Abidjan, jointly organized by the government of Côte d'Ivoire and the European Union (EU). Why these two actors? Quite simply because Côte d'Ivoire is the world's leading cocoa producer with more than two million tonnes (Mt) or 42% of world production, "still two and a half times more than Ghana" , recalled the EU ambassador in Abidjan, Jobst von Kirchmann. The EU is the main buyer of the Ivory Coast, recipient of 67% of its cocoa , followed by the United States, Canada and Indonesia and, for a very small part, China.
"From this economic reality stems a relationship of mutual interests that the two partners [Côte d'Ivoire and US] want to see continue," the statement said. However, “cocoa production in Côte d'Ivoire is facing three major challenges, which are deforestation, improving producers' incomes and the phenomenon of child labor in cocoa farming,” recalls Jobst von Kirchmann.
These challenges are not new and neither is tackling them, both on the Ivorian and European sides, and even on the private companies involved in this cocoa sector. However, the degree of urgency is accelerating in the face of climate challenges and their environmental but also increasingly health consequences, but also because consumers have raised their level of requirements in terms of the sustainability of the products they buy and that the EU has also, more than ever, included these issues as a priority on its agenda, whether on cocoa or other products.
Côte d'Ivoire merges its strategies
The importance of these three issues for Côte d'Ivoire - whose cocoa accounts for 15% of GDP and 6 million jobs - is not to be demonstrated either, as evidenced by the actions undertaken for years now, in particular through the establishment of the National Supervisory Council for Actions to Combat Child Trafficking, Exploitation and Labor (CNS) chaired by First Lady Dominique Ouattara; the Interministerial Committee for the Fight against Child Trafficking, Exploitation and Labor (CIM); the living income differential (DRD or LID in English) jointly with Ghana; development of a forestry strategy.
“It is now a question of integrating all of these dimensions into a global strategy,” the press release further specifies. To do this, the Ivorian government has undertaken the preparation of a White Paper to draw up an inventory of the relevant Ivorian legislation, the action program of the State and the stakeholders, the resources mobilized and to be mobilized as well as results achieved and prospects.
On the European side, "we are the biggest consumers of cocoa in the world and Germany the biggest consumer within the EU, the Netherlands the first importing country, and with Belgium and Germany the most major processors: in Belgium, in Brussels, is the largest chocolate factory in the world! “recalls Jobst von Kirchmann.
To fully understand where Europe is and where Europe wants to go, CommodAfrica reproduces below almost the entirety of Jobst von Kirchmann's speech at the conference on Friday.
EU and Ivory Coast want the same thing
"Our consumers are attached to this idea of wanting to eat products that come from a sustainable sector, from sustainable production, and this has found its way through the elections, through political pressure in the European Parliament, in the Member States and today at the European Commission. These subjects are current European concerns. Our president has also said that under her presidency, there is zero tolerance for child labor. We also have a strategy for the protection of forests at the global level and we are committed to the SDGs.
"So these three subjects are priorities for Côte d'Ivoire but also for the EU. So we shouldn't be surprised that we have the same agenda and that we want to go hand in hand. compatible and it's complementary. We want the same thing. It's a very good starting point for a real partnership.
"What are the answers to these three challenges? If we want to fight deforestation, we have to achieve environmental sustainability; if we want to fight poverty, we have to achieve economic sustainability; if we want social sustainability, we must fight against child labour.
EU responses
"The EU's responses are multiple. The first is regulatory measures. There is a regulation in preparation which aims to ban products that concretely contribute to deforestation. There is not only cocoa but also cocoa. palm oil, cashew, rubber, etc.
"There is a second legislation which is in preparation which is a binding legislation for the private sector, aiming to make obligatory the duty of vigilance, what we call in English 'due diligence'. Among the fundamental rights are the rights of children and decent work.
"The European Parliament has produced a report outlining the main lines of what this future regulation could be and the European Commission has carried out a consultation. Usually, when you carry out a consultation on a legislative act, you receive a thousand or two thousand contributions. Here, we received 1.2 million contributions, which shows the political interest that exists in Europe for this type of regulation. It is extraordinary! This is the second largest consultation that we have not has ever done for legislative acts.
"The second legislation is currently in consultation and will end on February 8, 2021. Then, again, the impact study will take place. Why? Because we have to think carefully about what we take as criteria for these regulations If we talk about deforestation, what are we talking about?The European Parliament has proposed as a deadline for the calculation that it be January 1, 2008: all cocoa produced in a place that was de facto a forest in 2008 could not be imported into the EU. It may be too radical, we don't know. This is why the European Commission is carrying out an impact study. All the traceability criteria will be put in place in the coming months, that's why there is this impact study."
European consumers, passionate about this cocoa dossier, are putting pressure
"In December, during a meeting with some of you and the Prime Minister of Côte d'Ivoire, you asked me when these regulations would be. I had asked our headquarters who told me that the proposal could be for 2022. Following the consultation which collected 1.2 million proposals, the agenda is advanced.The European Commission will put a legislative proposal in place and present it to the Council and Parliament during the summer of 2021, so in a few months... So it's going much faster than I thought a few months ago, but the impact study will show the criteria.
"There are also other actions at European level. The first is the European Union's Sustainable Cocoa Initiative. It's a bit the same as what is done here in Côte d'Ivoire but at Brussels level, with Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana as partners and which also brings together the private sector, civil society, the countries concerned and the services. And it is always on the same three challenges: child labor , deforestation and poverty.
[…] "There is also the “Team Europe” initiative because many actions are taken by the Member States and not necessarily by the EU or are taken by the European Investment Bank or agencies such as the AFD, KfW, GIZ, etc. So it brings together several players and I also think the European private sector. Because the private sector has come forward to say that it also wants to play an active role. This is what makes a "Team Europe and I hope that this will also encourage other partners - and I am looking at the World Bank present here as the ambassador of the United States, Switzerland, Canada, the UN - to join the same It will be important to work together on these same axes.
The largest EU project in Ivory Coast: Team Europe- Cacao Durable
"What's going to happen after the implementation? It's a big project so it's not going to start tomorrow but in 2022. We have to prepare everything; for us it's also the new programming that's- that is to say money that will come in gradually. For a project like "Team Europe - sustainable cocoa ", we are talking about hundreds of millions of euros. It is a very large project, moreover, the most that we are going to have here in Côte d'Ivoire in the years to come. At the level of the EIB alone, the request that has been made by the Ministry of Water and Forests is € 900 million to support the forestry strategy. These are considerable sums.
"Part of the money will go to budget support to the country, in particular to support existing sustainable cocoa strategies. But, afterwards, I can imagine working with the private sector. The EIB can make long-term loans. There are also other possibilities such as what already exists in the form of training twinnings, such as Ivorians who come to Belgium for training in chocolate.
"The question that arises is the following: if it starts in 2022, what do we do now? As we knew it would take time, we have already secured part of the funds here. We have already secured € 25 million, including € 10 million for budget support to the government, precisely to accompany these national strategy efforts, the White Paper in particular. But it is also a question of creating facilities that allow, for example, at any time to have technical assistance or further analysis, for example, of traceability with satellite systems, we have our Joint Research Center which has set up a facility, so we can start immediately and then we will start the “Team Europe” initiative afterwards.
"The other thing that we start immediately is this dialogue that we see today. But in two hours of time, we cannot discuss all the points. To talk in detail about a regulation, it takes time. So we have set up five working groups which will start in February and which will precisely allow us to discuss the various subjects in much more detail. It is beneficial for the government because it makes it possible to have additional data and it is also beneficial for us to know the position here, in Côte d'Ivoire.
"I remain convinced that if we manage this dialogue well, if we manage these initiatives well, we will achieve what we want: that cocoa exports from Côte d'Ivoire to the EU increase much more because This is an important sector for Côte d'Ivoire and for the EU. We want a win-win partnership by tackling together the three topics mentioned because this could make Côte d'Ivoire the first country in the world that would have a “sustainable cocoa production” label. This would be a huge advantage in the market today.”