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The Ivorian State has decided to renew, for one year, the tax benefits granted to cocoa bean grinders. Objective to encourage more and more transformation.
To encourage the industry to process half of the country’s cocoa locally, in 2017 Côte d’Ivoire introduced an export tax indexed to the level of processing. In the jargon of the cocoa sector, it is called the DUS, Unique Differentiated Exit Right. The grinder is taxed to the maximum if he exports beans, a little less for cocoa mass, even less for powder and not at all if he has transformed the cocoa into chocolate. In other words, the State waives a small percentage of its customs taxes, in exchange for investments on the part of the crusher, which undertakes via an agreement to increase its volumes processed on site, according to a scale linked to the existing capacity of the mill. ‘factory.
Eight grinding giants benefit from the DUS
It is this device which expired in March and which has just been renewed for one year: a measure taken because it has proved effective say the authorities, who put forward the figure of 14% increase in grinding between 2017 and 2019. But this additional year will also allow the State to assess the benefits of the device, explains a grinder. The idea being to know if the advantages granted to the eight industrial signatories are beneficial to the local economy. We already know that in terms of jobs the gain is not huge.
As for the shredder-exporters, it is the multinationals that benefit the most. The smallest local shredders do not feel, at this stage, concerned because most of them do not have the means to increase their processing capacity to the level required by the agreement. Their problem is rather to sell the cocoa they are already processing, explains one of them.
Upstream, growers still struggling
If this differentiated tax is not adapted to small shredders, it does not benefit either those who are upstream in the processing chain, the growers. This year again, the official price paid to cocoa farmers – 825 FCFA per kilo of beans for the 2021/2022 campaign – is not respected in several regions, deplores François Ruf, economist of the cocoa sector at CIRAD, Le Center de coopération internationale en recherche agronomy for development.