And if the short sentence of President Alassane Ouattara on Saf Cacao, pronounced on September 25, on the sidelines of the forum of the Ivorian employers, was the drop of water too much? As a reminder, the Ivorian president said: “Everyone says that for Saf-Cacao, if there are no special measures, there will be a bankruptcy of the banking system, it is not a question of what to do to arrange things in quotation marks for a company that has been mismanaged and has speculated. ”
And President Ouattara continued: “I want to be very clear on this and say that banks should be responsible for facilitating the industrialization of SMEs, but also to ensure that the private sector in general can be in better conditions. competitiveness”. This injunction seems to have been little appreciated by the banks.
Indeed, the credit institutions have understood through presidential statements, in contraction with the reassuring declarations, until then, the prime minister, that the public power would not fly to the rescue of banks. The provisions made or to be constituted will only be more painful. On the other hand, the most exposed banks should find urgent solutions. All these parameters have repercussions on the current campaign.
Thus, according to information reported by Reuters, many banks would be reluctant to finance the marketing of cocoa beans. In doing so, the banks would like to be assured of being reimbursed 160 billion CFA Francs ($ 244.4 billion) committed Saf Cacao now bankrupt and looking for a buyer.
According to the Bloomberg agency quoted by Comodafrica, the UAE Prime Group of Companies would have been chosen to take over the SAF-Cacao cocoa exporter. The group led by Morocco’s Karim Bouhout has proposed an initial payment of FCFA 40 billion then FCFA 130 billion over 7 years.
This Prime proposal seems to be favored over that of Ivorian Idex, yet higher, of the order of 210 billion CFA francs but payable over 10 years, according to Bloomberg to whom four relatives of the case would have confided.
Meanwhile, the recovery of Saf Cacao, banks that intervene in the market require huge guarantees, say the operators cited by Reuters. This tightening of credit conditions is increasing the enforcement of foreign companies (Cargill, Cemoi, Olam, SucDen, Barry Callebaut, Touton) in the cocoa sector.
Despite these financial difficulties, cocoa production in Côte d’Ivoire is expected to reach a record 2.2 million tonnes.
