The Ghana Civil-society Cocoa Platform and the cocoa Platforme Ivoirienne pour le cacao durable are two platforms for civil society organizations (CSOs) that have praised the governments of Ghana and the Ivory Coast for their decision to skip the upcoming World Cocoa Foundation Partners meeting.

The Plateforme Ivoirienne pour le cacao durable and the Ghana Civil-society, which are made up of farmers, farmer-based organizations, cooperatives, small-scale processors, the media, and CSOs working in the cocoa sector, applauded the two governments for their decision to skip the meeting that was scheduled to take place from Wednesday, October 26, to Thursday, October 27, 2022, in Brussels.

"We may not always agree with COCOBOD and CCC's judgments, but we fully support this move and the grounds offered for the decision," the CSOs said in a statement on Monday, October 24, 2022.

The statement noted that: “Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana account for 65 per cent of global cocoa production, but farmers in these two countries earn less than 6 per cent of the chocolate industry’s total revenue valued at about US$130 billion per annum.”

While “new studies have shown that the share of cocoa growers in the overall chocolate industry has drastically reduced over the years as traders, brands and retailers have accumulated super profits.

“For example, according to Fairtrade, when cocoa prices were high in the 1970s, cocoa growers were earning up to 50 per cent of the value of a chocolate bar.

“This fell to 16 per cent in the 1980s and today, farmers receive around 6 per cent of the value. This has led to high levels of poverty and hardship for cocoa growers in two of the largest cocoa producing countries in the world.”

Both platforms indicated that: “Today, producers are not living, they are only surviving.”

They continued that: “By boycotting this flagship gathering of the private sector in Brussels, the governments of Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana are sending a strong signal, but it is also a cry from the heart. The issue of cocoa pricing must be put at the center of the discussion on cocoa sustainability.”

They added: “We fully support this position and hope that the world will take notice and denounce the private sector for their nefarious and unfair cocoa pricing practices.”