Schemes cancelled
ABIDJAN/LONDON - Ivory Coast and Ghana are cancelling all cocoa sustainability schemes that US-based Hershey runs in their countries, accusing the chocolatemaker of trying to avoid paying a cocoa premium aimed at combating farmer poverty.
In a letter addressed to Hershey and seen by Reuters, the Ivorian and Ghanaian cocoa regulators accuse Hershey of sourcing unusually large volumes of physical cocoa on the ICE futures exchange in order to avoid the premium, known as a living income differential (LID).
The letter, which also accuses Fuji Oil Holdings' Blommer subsidiary of aiding Hershey, was verified as authentic by spokespeople for the regulators.
Ivory Coast and Ghana, which produce two-thirds of the world's cocoa, said they are also barring third party companies from running sustainability schemes in the West African nations on behalf of Hershey.