The Coffee-Cocoa Council, the regulatory body for the sector in Côte d'Ivoire, proceeded on Wednesday to the official delivery of the producer's cards, a support serving as a bank card and electronic wallet for transactions related to the purchase of beans.
The party room of the Caistab building, in Plateau, the business center of Abidjan, hosted the event which took place in the presence of the Minister of State, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Kouassi Adjoumani and industry players.
The General Manager of the Coffee-Cocoa Council, Mr. Yves Brahima Koné, has indicated that payments will now be made directly to the cards of cooperative delegates, who will no longer handle money.
The delegates, once in contact with the farmers, will use their tablet to scan the planter's card with the QR Code which will inform them of the identity of the planter, the data on the plantation and its potential in terms of production, before scanning the seals on the bags.
According to Mr. Yves Brahima, the only element that the delegate cannot change is the price, which is integrated directly into the terminals. And, when the weight is validated, a ticket comes out immediately and is given to the planter, indicating the weight of the cocoa and the overall price.
Then the delegate makes the transfer directly to the planter's card and the operation is complete. The producer receives an SMS which informs him of the data relating to the purchase. With the receipt, he has all the transfer points where he can collect his money.
Mr. Adjoumani was pleased that this card makes it possible to identify farmers and automatically transfer the overall value of the product to the card without the possibility of deducting any part.
"You no longer need to carry all your money on you, your card will allow you to make your purchase in stores and make small withdrawals for your daily shopping and that of your families. So no more episode of the highway robbers", he said.
The spokesperson for the cooperatives, Ano Frédéric, a farmer in Abengourou (East Ivorian), declared "today we have a producer's card which comes to solve all these problems and which allows us to be paid at the right price".
It is "a card thanks to which we will be safe, because we are no longer obliged to carry cash for our purchases", he added, welcoming an operation which will also ensure the traceability of cocoa production in Côte d'Ivoire.
The census of coffee-cocoa producers and their orchards cost about 6.5 billion CFA francs: 993,031 producers were identified, of which 8% are women and 92% men, the average age of producers is 44 years and over. 60% are over 40 years old.
The producer card aims for the traceability of the cocoa to guarantee transparency on its origin. Work started in 2019 and culminated in the Coffee Cocoa Value Chain Feasibility Study.
The coffee-cocoa sector represents an important economic and social sector for Côte d'Ivoire. The country, the world's leading cocoa producer with a production of 2 million tonnes, or 40% of the world's supply.
Source : Abidjan.net