Going to meet farmers, without whom the chocolate market would lack raw materials, is a way for the Ivorian regulator to put pressure on the Mars and Hershey groups. He blamed them for turning to the stock market for supplies to avoid paying the special premium known as the “decent income differential” .

Negotiated last year and entered into force on October 1, the bonus was even discussed in the presence of the two American multinationals incriminated today, hence the anger of the Café Cacao Council and Cocobod , the public bodies for the management of cocoa sectors of these two West African countries.

Buyers have managed to circumvent this premium by buying from certified term warehouses, that is to say by buying beans produced before October 1st. "Secret strategies" to "bypass the mechanism for improving producers' incomes with a view to making it fail", denounce Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire.

In response, for the first time, the two countries, which account for two-thirds of global cocoa production, suspended Hershey 's sustainability programs that certify that major chocolate groups buy "ethical" cocoa, i.e. say beans that are not from plantations that have led to deforestation or child labor.

The Yamoussoukro meeting also serves to reassure producers about the determination of sector managers in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana to compel multinationals to respect their commitments. Because today, the situation of cocoa growers is worrying in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana.

“The objective for us will be to bring each party back to respect the agreement that we have reached. So with Hershey we are talking. They are our partners. We have some disagreements. We discuss. We are going to get along”, explains to RFI the president of the Cocoa Coffee Council of Côte d'Ivoire, Yves Brahima Koné who hopes that this meeting will allow the situation to be unblocked and to remind the various actors of the sector of their commitments.

A losing battle for some. “Struggle between government and chocolate makers? Everyone knows that chocolatiers will always be winners. These are people who have months and months in stock at their disposal. However, we cannot keep our cocoa for months,” notes Moussa Koné, president of the National Union for Progress in Côte d'Ivoire. He particularly regrets not being invited to the negotiating table. “Making decisions without us is making decisions against us,” he says.

"Cocoa farmers have an interest in arm wrestling, they have everything to gain"

Christophe Bertrand, Secretary General of the Syndicate of Chocolate Makers and Confectioners of France

"We must clarify everything that is going on"

Note that for their part, the American giants Mars and Hershey provide support for small planters, by paying this “decent income differential”. Some growers confirm receiving this bonus of 400 dollars per ton of cocoa sold.

With this meeting, the Ivorian authorities wish to reassure, but above all to show their intransigence around the payment of the premium. “We must clarify everything that is happening and allow people not to be discouraged. This is why this meeting is taking place. So all the industrialists who do not want to comply with the rules that we have defined together, this means that they do not want to trade in cocoa and we will draw the consequences", considers the Ivorian Minister of Agriculture and of Sustainable Development, Kobenan Kouassi Adjoumani. According to him, “there are people who agree with the principle, but there are others who want to play a double game”.

Protest marches, organized by cocoa farmers, are announced in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana on Thursday. While on the Ivorian side, a meeting is planned between the government and the industry, the Ghanaian president did not address the subject.

In the middle of the electoral campaign for the presidential election on Monday, Nana Akufo-Addo, candidate for her own succession, preferred to underline her plan to create a special pension scheme for 1.5 million cocoa farmers.