(Ecofin Agency) - The Ivorian Coffee and Cocoa Council (CCC) revealed that SOPEX is no longer authorized to sign contracts with Ivorian cocoa exporters and processors during this campaign and the next ten years to come because the company didn’t respect its business commitments. The council however declared that the sales already initiated won’t be affected.   

According to Reuters, the group did not inform CCC that Nocoacy, which is its counterparty, was speculating on the commodity. It was then unable to pay 41,000 tons, costing CFA21 billion to the regulator.

“We want to say to the market that, from now on, an exporter in default must suffer the consequences of its actions, but also the counterparty. There are other exporters and their counterparties who will be banned from our system in a few weeks,” a source at the CCC said.

The ban is part of various actions, announced in September 2017 by the council, to strengthen the sale system in place since 2012 which showed a huge number of defaults and created a CFA200 billion loss during the 2016-17 campaign.                                                           

Let’s note that Sopex, founded in 1894 at Antwerp, became a cocoa trader in 2011. The group also trade in Sugar and coffee.

Espoir Olodo