Yamoussoukro, Dec 04, 2020 (AIP) – Ivorian cocoa producer organizations threatened, during an emergency meeting organized on Thursday, December 3, 2020 in Yamoussoukro, to suspend their collaboration with certain chocolate makers who refuse to pay the differential decent income (DRD).

They intend to withdraw from sustainability and certification programs with these chocolatiers and industrialists, arguing that this decision was taken in consultation with their peers in neighboring Ghana with whom they are fighting the same fight for the revaluation of producers' incomes.

"Today, the salvation of cocoa producers lies in the application of the DRD which allows them to earn 400 dollars on each ton of cocoa sold", explained the spokesperson for the producers' associations, N' Zi Yao Dinard. “Unfortunately some manufacturers are adopting strategies to circumvent the payment of the DRD in order to make it fail,” he continued.

In order to give their action every chance, a DRD monitoring committee by Ivorian and Ghanaian producers will be set up in the coming weeks, in order to formally identify the manufacturers concerned and implement the sanctions decided against them.

The director general of the Conseil du café-cacao, Yves Brahima Koné, who informed the producers about the latest news in the sector before these measures were taken, reassured that there was no question of a standoff because "it's not about all manufacturers".

“There are some who are fully committed so that the planters are well paid and some who are in another scheme but I think they will return to the field of my reality,” he said, before revealing that discussions are underway to restore serenity and trust between the partners in the sector.

The Federation of Organizations of Coffee-Cocoa Producer Organizations (FOP-CC), the National Association of Agricultural Cooperatives of Côte d'Ivoire (ANACACI), the Association of Producers and Professional Agricultural Organizations of the Western Mountains (APROPAM ) and the Federation of Women Producers of Coffee and Cocoa (FNFPCC) have together shown their determination to stand up to the crooked industrialists "whatever it costs them".