Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 7 • Number 12 • 22nd June 2007

Report: Cocoa Trade Fuelling Armed Conflict in Cote D’Iviore

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An investigation by London-based advocacy group Global Witness found that USD 118 million worth of profits from Côte d’Ivoire’s cocoa trade has been used to help fund the civil war that has ravaged the country for the past five years.

Valuable resources such as oil, gold, and ‘blood diamonds’ have long been used to finance conflicts throughout Africa, Global Witness said, and now ‘conflict cocoa’ in Côte d’Ivoire is serving a similar purpose.

Representing over a third of the total value of Ivorian exports, cocoa is the primary economic resource in the West African state, which produces 40 percent of the world’s cocoa supply.

The Global Witness report, released on 8 June, charged that international cocoa-exporting companies have diverted significant funds to help finance armed forces representing both the Ivorian government and the Forces Nouvelles (FN), the rebel group that controls the northern part of the country.

Global Witness called on the UN Security Council to threaten sanctions against companies that funnel cocoa profits to armed groups, and said that the Ivorian government should make its finances more transparent. The report also recommended that international cocoa companies more closely audit their finances and monitor their supply chains.

“There is a high chance that your chocolate bar contains cocoa from Côte d’Ivoire and may have funded the conflict there,” said Patrick Alley of Global Witness. “The chocolate industry should clean up its act and ensure that it only sells conflict-free chocolate.” He stopped short, however, of recommending measures similar to the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme for Rough Diamonds that excludes conflict diamonds from legal international markets through a series of certification requirements and trade restrictions, and which is covered by a special waiver at the WTO (see Bridges Trade BioRes, 1 December 2006, http://www.ictsd.org/biores/06-12-01/inbrief.htm#2).

Additional resources

The report, entitled “Hot Chocolate - How Cocoa fuelled the conflict in Côte d’Ivoire” is available at http://www.globalwitness.org/media_library_detail.php/552/en/hot_chocolate_how_cocoa_fuelled_the_conflict_in_co.

“Cocoa seen funding Ivory Coast conflict,” UPI, 8 June 2007; “Report warns of ‘conflict cocoa,’” BBC NEWS, 8 June 2007; “Global Witness report calls on chocolate industry to clean up its act,” GLOBAL WITNESS, 8 June 2007; “Africa: Ivory Coast: Cocoa Fueled Civil War,” THE NEW YORK TIMES, 9 June 2007.