Abidjan, Feb 4, 2026 (AFP)
Two trade unionists from Ivory Coast's cocoa industry are facing "defamation" and "slander" charges after they criticised disruption to the economically valuable sector, their lawyer told AFP on Wednesday.
Moussa Kone of Synapci and Koffi Kanga of Anaproci have repeatedly denounced the crisis affecting the Ivorian cocoa sector, which makes up 14 percent of GDP.
Ivory Coast is facing major difficulties in selling its cocoa, hit by a slowdown in exports amid buyers' liquidity problems.
Its ports and cooperatives have suffered blockages, AFP journalists have observed.
Abidjan's public prosecutor has upheld the grounds of a complaint filed against the trade unionists by Yves Brahima Kone, the director general of the Coffee and Cocoa Board (CCC) -- the sector's regulatory body.
He accuses them of citing "inaccurate" figures on the "number of trucks parked in the ports" and on the "amount of cocoa blocked" in Ivorian cooperatives, which allegedly "contributed to the fall in the price of cocoa on international markets", their lawyer Erman Coulibaly told AFP.
The date of their trial remains unknown.
On January 14, the CCC's director general told media that there was "no blockage" in the cocoa sector.
But one week later, then-agriculture minister Kobenan Kouassi Adjoumani announced that the state would "set up a purchasing mechanism" for the unsold cocoa stock, estimated at around 100,000 tonnes.
The mechanism is expected to help calm producers -- some of whom have not been paid since November.
After soaring to $12,000 per tonne in late 2024 after several years of harvests failing to meet demand, cocoa prices have slumped on world markets since the middle of last year.

Sumber : AFP