In the midst of a dispute over the price of beans for the current season, the director of the Café Cacao Council , Yves Brahima Koné, has just cancelled nearly 1,200 loading operations by the giants Cargill, Olam and Barry Callebaut.

The dispute between the major trading companies and the Conseil café cacao (CCC) is about to turn into trench warfare. At the end of November, the director general of the CCC, the Ivorian gendarme of the cocoa sector , Yves Brahima Koné, cancelled more than 1,200 "bills of lading", the document that accompanies shipments of 35 to 40 tons of cocoa by truck, concluded by several international traders including the American giant Cargill, the Indo-Singaporean Olam and the Swiss Barry Callebault. Nearly 45,000 tons of cocoa beans in total could not be transported to the port of Abidjan and are currently blocked. A decision that penalizes, according to the Ivorian cocoa gendarme , the "non-compliance" with the rules in force by the giants of the sector. The latter, who are required to have each "bill of lading" validated in advance by the CCC, did not report the blocked loads to the body.

Lionel Soulard, Cargill's West Africa director, openly complained to Yves Brahima Koné in a phone call during which he called the CCC's decision "unilateral". This is one more step in the month-long standoff between the CCC and cocoa exporters . As part of the 2020-2021 marketing year, the majors still refuse to align themselves with the tariffs deemed too "high" by producers.

At the end of November, Cargill also took the number 1 position in the sector in Olam with cumulative purchases amounting to nearly 117,000 tons, compared to 112,000 for the Singaporean and nearly 102,000 for Barry Callebaut.