In a press release published on Friday April 2, at the initiative of some thirty organizations, the reduction in the price of cocoa paid to the producer by 25% is seen as a stroke of the penknife to a global multi-actor dynamic, which aims a fairer regulation of the sector, in order to have more remunerative incomes for the producers.

The Cocoa Coffee Council (CCC) justified the price drop by overproduction and the fall in world demand. Julie Stoll, General Delegate of Fair Trade France: “With the Covid-19 crisis, there is tension on demand and at the same time, there has been a rather good harvest. So it's a small differential between supply and demand. When we say drop in demand, it means the decrease in demand from multinationals, we are not certain today that there is a real drop in chocolate consumption. So there is pressure on prices because the cocoa does not leave, the cocoa is not purchased. Producers cannot be the only supply and demand adjustment variable. The CCC had no choice but to lower this price. »
According to the signatory organizations, it is rather the multinationals in the sector that sabotage any initiative to better remunerate producers. Multinationals who engage in "an indecent showdown" with producers.

For her part, Julie Stoll believes that an effort could have been made on the part of the multinationals: "We are on a slight overproduction, the multinationals could honor their contracts, buy the same quantities as in previous years and certainly a little stock , cocoa paste stores very well. And they don't. They reduce their purchases or buy elsewhere. The result is that it puts crazy pressure on Ivorian cocoa growers who are unable to sell their goods”.