Cocoa growers in Côte d'Ivoire, the world's largest producer, continued their media offensive on Thursday against the chocolate multinationals, which they accuse of reducing them to misery by underpaying "brown gold", threatening them with " boycott".

Public accusations that could be costly in terms of image and sales and to the major chocolate groups, already in the hot seat for several years on ethical issues.

"We will boycott the activities of all industrialists who oppose the DRD", the living income differential, a premium of 400 dollars per ton of cocoa (on top of the market price) supposed to be paid by multinationals for planters , said in a joint statement four major cocoa farmers' organizations (FOPCC, ANACACI, APROPAM and FNFPCC). They had brought together some 500 delegates in Yamoussoukro, during a meeting with the Coffee and Cocoa Council (CCC), the public management body for the sector.

Leaders of the four organizations cited the suspension of their "collaboration on sustainability and certification programs" and even threatened to stop producing cocoa.

"It's a question of survival. We are ready to go all the way. We can suspend our cocoa production for a year or two and turn to other crops," said Soro Penatirgué, president of the National Association of Agricultural Cooperatives of Côte d'Ivoire (ANACACI).

Sorts beans at a cocoa exporter in Abidjan, July 3, 2019 (Sia KAMBOU / AFP/Archives)

Marcellin Kouakou, a 51-year-old planter who produces three tonnes of cocoa a year in the Oumé region (center) explained to AFP "to barely get by with 500,000 CFA francs" (750 euros) in annual income. to support his two wives and 10 children.

This new media offensive comes after the accusations publicly launched Monday by the Ivory Coast and Ghana against two giant American chocolate makers, Hershey and Mars, of not paying the DRD. These countries are the two leading cocoa producers in the world with respectively more than 40 and 20% of the market.

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The CCC and its Ghana counterpart the Cocobod have announced the immediate suspension of all Hershey certification programs in both countries.

Côte d'Ivoire, where President Alassane Ouattara has just been re-elected, and Ghana, where President Nana Akufo-Addo is seeking re-election on December 7, have even denounced a "plot" by multinational chocolate companies to "impoverish". "three million West African peasants".

Hershey and Mars protested their good faith, ensuring they pay the DRD and support smallholders.

The DRD was imposed last year by the two West African countries on multinational cocoa trading and processing companies and large chocolate groups, in order to better remunerate tropical planters.

A cocoa plantation in October 2020 near Guiglo, Ivory Coast (Issouf SANOGO / AFP)

These are the poor relatives of the world cocoa and chocolate market, from which they receive only 6% of the 100 billion dollars in annual revenue. Half of Ivorian planters live below the poverty line, according to the World Bank.

Certification programs for chocolate makers aim to guarantee that they buy "sustainable" cocoa that meets ethical production criteria (not causing deforestation or not using child labor in particular). They are an important element of communication and marketing aimed at Western consumers.

Coincidence of timing, in a completely different case in the United States, two multinational cocoa and chocolate traders, Cargill and Nestlé, are being prosecuted for complicity in the forced labor of children on cocoa plantations in Côte d'Ivoire.

Present at the Yamoussoukro meeting, the general manager of the Ivorian Coffee Cocoa Council, Yves Koné, tempered the remarks of the planters, clearly opening the door to negotiation.

"We must work together with the industrialists. I am confident. Even if there is reluctance, I am convinced that they will accept that we pay the planters better," he told AFP.