By RFIPosted on 04-11-2019Modified on 04-11-2019 at 00:10

At the end of October, a US Customs team traveled to Côte d'Ivoire to investigate child labor in the cocoa sector. Another mission of this kind could take place by the end of the year. Last July, two US senators asked the Department of Homeland Security to investigate and, if necessary, to ban the entry of Ivorian cocoa beans from forced labor into the United States.

The threat of an embargo is a way for the two senators to put pressure on the chocolate industry and the Ivorian government to act more against child labor in this sector. Ivory Coast is the world leader in cocoa and supplies 40% of world production.

The shock wave of senators Sherrod Brown and Ron Wyden's letter to the US Interior Minister in July was strongly felt in high places in Abidjan. If it were to materialize, such an embargo would be a disaster for the Ivorian economy highly dependent on cocoa, which supports a fifth of the population .

The first lady, Dominique Ouattara, who chairs the National Committee to Monitor Child Labor, was sent to Washington in September to defend the government's actions in this area, including its National Action Plan to combat child labor. 76 billion CFA francs. " 85% of children involved in cocoa-culture go to school, live with their parents and occasionally go to the field, " she said.

According to a study by the US Department of Labor, just over two million children work in cocoa plantations in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana. The vast majority live on small family farms and perform hazardous tasks. But statistical data are lacking to assess the number of children who are victims of the most serious situations, such as modern slavery or trafficking from neighboring countries.

In Côte d'Ivoire, according to the World Bank, the average size of plantations is between 2 and 5 hectares and 55% of producers live below the poverty line. Fighting child labor first requires better pay planters hammer the state organs of cocoa control in Accra and Abidjan, who have just obtained industrial bonus of $ 400 per ton for next season in this regard.

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