Latest news with #CotedIvoire
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
US court dismisses child-labour claims against cocoa importers
Nestlé, Hershey, Mars are among cocoa importers to have defeated an attempt to revive allegations they benefited from child slavery on cocoa farms in Côte d'Ivoire. The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected the proposed class action lawsuit from eight plaintiffs, each a citizen of Mali, who sought to blame Hershey, Nestle, Mars, Mondelez International and three other companies for human trafficking. According to the plaintiffs, they were forced to work as children on farms after being promised well-paying jobs in remote areas of the west African country. They also allege that it was months or years before they were able to return home. However, the appeals court found there was no link between the plaintiffs' forced labour and the importers. US Circuit Judge Justin Walker wrote the 'plaintiffs in this case deserve the greatest sympathy and the people who took away their childhoods deserve the greatest condemnation. 'But the plaintiffs did not plausibly allege a connection between those people and the importers. The plaintiffs, therefore, lack standing to sue the importers.' Walker also wrote: "Is there a 'possibility' that at least some of the importers sourced cocoa from those farms? Yes, but is it 'plausible'? Not on this complaint.' As a result, the court concluded the plaintiffs did not 'connect the defendants to any specific cocoa plantations,' as they made no mention of which specific plantations they worked on as children. A lawyer representing the plaintiffs, Terry Collingsworth, said his clients were "extremely disappointed" and are "considering their legal options.' According to Reuters, the lawyer said the court 'rewarded the chocolate multinational defendants ... for concealing their cocoa supply chains, such that former child slaves are unable to link a specific company to the Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) farms where they were enslaved'. "US court dismisses child-labour claims against cocoa importers" was originally created and published by Just Food, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
Arab News
08-07-2025
- Business
- Arab News
IsDB approves $277m to boost jobs, health care, green transport in member states
JEDDAH: Job creation, better health care, and greener transportation are set to advance in several member countries as the Islamic Development Bank approved $277 million in financing. In its 361st meeting, chaired by President Mohammed bin Sulaiman Al-Jasser, the IsDB approved financing for projects in Mauritania, Cote d'Ivoire, and The Gambia, it said in a statement on July 7. As a leading multilateral development institution in the Islamic world, the IsDB focuses on fostering inclusive economic growth, strengthening human capital, and enhancing infrastructure across its 57 member countries. Through long-term partnerships and targeted investments in key sectors, the bank supports sustainable development and improves the quality of life throughout the Islamic nation. In #Mauritania, #IsDB has approved EUR 26.18 million to expand the National Cardiology Center in #Nouakchott, a vital step to: Reduce premature deaths from cardiovascular diseases & Meeting rising demand for specialized healthcare. Read More: — IsDB Group (@isdb_group) July 7, 2025 The Jeddah-headquartered global funding organization added that this round of development financing highlights its firm commitment to transformative projects that generate tangible impact and advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals. 'The approved financing package spans vital sectors, namely health care, education, and transportation and is focused on addressing urgent development challenges, from improving urban mobility to strengthening public health systems and building human capital,' the statement said. In Mauritania, the IsDB allocated €26.18 million ($30.7 million) to expand the National Cardiology Center in Nouakchott. The initiative aims to enhance the country's capacity to prevent and treat cardiovascular diseases, a leading cause of premature death, and improve access to specialized, life-saving care for thousands of people, the statement added. Côte d'Ivoire will benefit from a major #IsDB investment of EUR 200 million in the Abidjan Urban Mobility Project, a transformative initiative that will: Enhance sustainable transport, Ease congestion, & Improve access to jobs and services. Read More:… — IsDB Group (@isdb_group) July 7, 2025 In Cote d'Ivoire, a €200 million financing package will support the Abidjan Sustainable and Integrated Urban Mobility Project, a major initiative to upgrade the city's public transportation system. The undertaking seeks to enhance access to financial and social opportunities while boosting the efficiency of transit along the Yopougon-Bingerville corridor and its feeder lines in Abidjan, the country's economic capital and largest city. It also aims to reduce congestion, encourage greener transportation, and facilitate easier travel for residents — especially those in underserved areas — to jobs, schools, and essential services. In The Gambia, meanwhile, the bank is investing $32.20 million to help establish the School of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences at the University of The Gambia. With US$ 32.20 million in new financing from #IsDB, The #Gambia is set to launch the School of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences. This project aims to: Train future healthcare professionals, & Expand national research capacity. Read More: — IsDB Group (@isdb_group) July 7, 2025 'This initiative will help address the country's critical shortage of health care professionals by building a pipeline of locally trained doctors, nurses, and public health experts, ultimately improving the quality and resilience of the national health system,' the statement said. In May, the IsDB approved over $1.32 billion in funding for key projects during its 360th board meeting. The funding included a $632 million flood protection dams project in Oman aimed at reducing climate-related risks, a €212 million road rehabilitation initiative in Cameroon to enhance regional connectivity, and major infrastructure improvements in Burkina Faso. Spanning sectors such as health, infrastructure, food security, vocational training and water access, the investments also reflected the bank's comprehensive approach to promoting sustainable development in its member states.
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Starcore Announces Spin-Out of African Properties
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 8, 2025) - Starcore International Mines Ltd. (TSX: SAM) ("Starcore" or the "Company") announces its intention to spin out its exploration interests in various permit and permit applications in a highly prospective region of Cote d'Ivoire, West Africa. Through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Starcore currently has interests over land holdings covering an aggregate area of 1,393 km2 which includes the exploration permit granted to its Kimoukro Gold Project. Starcore intends to advance the African exploration interests by spinning out the Côte d'Ivoire projects to its wholly-owned subsidiary, EU Gold Mining Inc., ("EU Gold") that will then seek a separate listing in Canada. Through a Plan of Arrangement, Starcore will transfer and assign to EU Gold all of Starcore's right, title and interest in its mineral property assets in Africa. This will allow Starcore's management to focus on its Mexican gold and silver producing assets, while EU Gold will focus on developing the mineral properties in Africa. In consideration for the spin-out, EU Gold will assume all of the liabilities related to the African properties and will issue one common share of EU Gold for every two issued and outstanding shares of Starcore. It is expected that Starcore would receive 33,431,758 shares of EU Gold, which Starcore intends to distribute to its shareholders on a pro-rata basis. "The goal is to maximize shareholder value, while allowing each company to focus and develop its major asset," said Robert Eadie, President and CEO of Starcore. It is intended that EU Gold would attract new management, well-versed in African diplomacy and culture, with the expertise to work closely with the African team in place at Côte d'Ivoire. The Plan of Arrangement will be subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals. About Starcore Starcore International Mines is engaged in precious metals production with focus and experience in Mexico. While this base of producing assets has been complemented by exploration and development projects throughout North America, Starcore has expanded its reach internationally with the project in Côte d'Ivoire. The Company is a leader in Corporate Social Responsibility and advocates value driven decisions that will increase long term shareholder value. You can find more information on the investor friendly website here: ON BEHALF OF STARCORE INTERNATIONAL MINES LTD. (Signed) "Robert Eadie" Robert Eadie, President and Chief Executive Officer FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: ROBERT EADIE Telephone: (604) 602-4935 LinkedInX Facebook The Toronto Stock Exchange has not reviewed nor does it accept responsibilityfor the adequacy or accuracy of this press release. This news release contains "forward-looking" statements and information ("forward-looking statements"). All statements, other than statements of historical facts, included herein, including, without limitation, management's expectations and the potential of the Company's projects, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs of Company management, as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to Company's management and reflect the beliefs, opinions, and projections on the date the statements are made. Forward-looking statements involve various risks and uncertainties and accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. In particular, there is no assurance (i) the spin out of the African interests will occur as described above, or at all, (ii) that EU Gold will be able to attract new management, or (iii) that such corporate reorganization will benefit shareholders in the near or long term. The Company assumes no obligation to update forward‐looking statements or beliefs, opinions, projections or other factors, except as required by law. NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION IN THE UNITED STATES To view the source version of this press release, please visit Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Japan Times
17-06-2025
- Business
- Japan Times
High cocoa prices drive smuggling surge, alarming traders
At the town of Gbapleu, a rope tied between two metal barrels separates Cote d'Ivoire from Guinea. A thin trickle of traffic passes through the border post, mostly motorbikes or cars stuffed with passengers and overburdened with food and household items tied to their roofs. For those who want to avoid the scrutiny of officials, there are other routes. Scattered throughout the region are dirt tracks that snake through the forests and grassland. After dark, motorcycle couriers arrive at warehouses in Ivorian towns near the frontier and load up with two or three sacks of cocoa, each weighing about 65 kilograms. From around 10 p.m., the riders set out for the border in a convoy, dodging the checkpoints to carry beans into Guinea. It's a dangerous, but lucrative business. If they're caught, smugglers face up to 10 years imprisonment or a fine of 50 million CFA francs ($86,640). But the smugglers can earn over $240 a week, more than three times the country's living wage. The trade has become increasingly worth the risks as cocoa prices have spiked. "God has been on our side this season,' said Fred, a smuggler in the border town of Danane, who asked to be identified by a pseudonym to avoid retribution. Prices for cocoa on the global market have nearly tripled since 2023, reaching around $13,000 per ton in December, before falling back to around $9,000. Adverse weather and disease outbreaks have exacerbated supply issues caused by decades of underinvestment in major producing countries, leading to severe shortages. But as prices soar, farmers in Cote d'Ivoire, the largest exporter of the crop, have found it hard to cash in. The cocoa trade in the country is controlled by a government-run regulator, the Conseil du Cafe-Cacao (CCC), which sets prices. The current CCC price is about a third of the global market price, which has created a powerful incentive to smuggle crops into neighboring countries that don't have the same central pricing. The surge in smuggling has made it harder for international buyers to source beans, as Ivorian suppliers struggle to fulfill their contracts. It has made traceability more difficult, a major problem for companies trying to address long-running issues of deforestation and child labor in their supply chains. For the Ivorian government, smuggling has cut revenues, undermining its national budget and its ability to invest in the long term future of the cocoa industry. Fermented cocoa beans dry in the sun on a farm in Azaguie. | Bloomberg "There is a huge loss of Ivorian harvest,' Arsene Dadie, director of domestic marketing at the CCC, said in an interview in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire's commercial hub. The CCC sells cocoa crops months ahead of harvest, which helps them to set a guaranteed price for farmers at the start of the season. That meant that as prices rallied last year, regulators had already committed to sell most of their cocoa well below the global market price. Farmers typically sell to brokers and middlemen who aggregate the crops and sell to major buyers, such as Barry Callebaut, Cargill, Olam Group and Touton. Ghana, the world's second-largest producer, has a similar setup to Cote d'Ivoire, with the Ghana Cocoa Board acting as a central buyer. Output in Ghana fell to its lowest in more than a decade last season. Smuggling exacerbated the supply shortfall. In April, prices in Guinea, Togo and Liberia were more than double those the CCC was offering, creating an arbitrage that some farmers and middlemen couldn't resist exploiting. The scale of the smuggling can be estimated from the growing disparity between Guinea's production and exports. Guinea hasn't appreciably invested in increasing its domestic cocoa crop, but in the 2023-24 growing season, shipments from the country rose 15% over the previous year, according to data provider Trade Data Monitor. That growth has continued. In the first three months of the current season, starting October, Guinea's cocoa shipments were more than twice the previous year. "You can assume that Guinea has been enjoying nice prices and increasing its production, so maybe a 10% increase would be a good accomplishment already but not enough to move from 25,000 to 95,000 tons,' said Fabrice Laurent, founder of cocoa research firm Forestero. The bulk of Guinea's cocoa ends up in Europe, with the Netherlands accounting for about 70% of all Guinean exports between January and December, according to Trade Data Monitor data. A cocoa-processing plant in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire | Bloomberg Over the 2023-24 season, beans arriving for export at Ivorian ports dropped by 30%. Some of the drop is down to bad weather that battered crops, but Laurent estimates that around 100,000 tons were smuggled out of the country, mostly into Guinea, Togo and Liberia. That compares with the total harvest of about 1.7 million tons. With every smuggled ton of beans, the country is losing out on export duties. The cocoa sector accounts for about 40% of Cote d'Ivoire's export revenue, making it a vital source of foreign exchange. The rise in illicit flows has left buying agents struggling to find enough cocoa to fulfill their contracts with international traders. Last year, exporters faced significant losses after both Ivory Coast and Ghana were unable to honor presold contracts. Frustrated traders in Abidjan, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information, said they were torn between breaking the law and overpaying to source supply, or failing to meet their obligations. Several admitted that they are now paying a premium over farm gate prices to secure beans, in defiance of CCC rules against overpaying. Cocoa traders typically hedge their physical purchases by selling futures contracts. Delayed cocoa shipments last season forced traders to buy back their short positions and initiate new ones at a time of rapid price inflation, with futures climbing from roughly $3,000 to $11,000 per ton. One of the traders said that they lost £2,000 ($2,700) on every ton's worth of defaulted contracts, as they were forced to roll over futures contracts at higher prices. The rise in smuggling complicates chocolate makers' efforts to improve traceability in their supply chains. Consumers are increasingly conscious of human rights and environmental risks in the cocoa business, which has put pressure on companies to invest in understanding where their beans are grown. At the moment, traceability is largely voluntary, but that will change for large companies in Europe when the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) comes into effect on Dec. 30. The law will require that traders provide documentation tracing supply back to the farm level. "People are bracing for EUDR and even though supply was tight, major traders were not willing to buy cocoa just from anyone,' Jonathan Parkman, head of agricultural sales at Marex Group, said. That makes smuggling a top concern for traders and buyers, he added. A delivery truck waits to unload sacks of cocoa beans at a re-bagging facility in San-Pedro, Cote d'Ivoire. | Bloomberg Several traders in Abidjan and middlemen in the western towns of Danane and Duekoue spoke of their experience on condition of anonymity to avoid reprisals. They said that they felt that the government isn't doing enough to crack down on smuggling, however, and that corrupt officials are aiding the illicit trade in beans across the border. While smugglers such as Fred move small cargoes of cocoa into Guinea, much of the trade happens in bulk, with organized, politically connected networks moving trucks carrying upward of 30 tons of cocoa at a time, according to smugglers, officials and traders. That's an expensive exercise, as the smugglers need to have enough capital to buy the beans from farmers or brokers, pay for logistics and spare some money for bribes. Bribes range from $8,000 to $21,000 per truck, according to smugglers and traders who asked not be named so they could discuss sensitive information. "It's the influential business people who have mastered the art of smuggling these goods, also working with civil servants who are happy to get their cuts from it, so it's a chain,' Ndubuisi Christian Ani, a Nigeria-based analyst at the Institute for Security Studies think tank, said. The CCC's Dadie said that the government has stepped up its anti-smuggling efforts. "It's a well-organised network but the CCC is working with the local anti-smuggling system to increase monitoring,' he said. This season the military was deployed to the border, and the Ministry of Interior has set up regional anti-smuggling committees with the regulator. They are tasked with publicizing and combating illegal cocoa sales, a CCC spokeswoman said. "As soon as the taskforce was set up, we seized three trucks and saw that a certain number of administrative actors who did not subscribe to this vision were sanctioned,' Dadie said. In a statement, Fidele Sarassoro, head of Cote d'Ivoire's national security council, said that anti-smuggling operations set up in October last year had achieved "significant results,' including the seizure of more than 590 tons of cocoa, and the arrest of 34 people. In February, Ivorian customs seized a stock of 2,000 tons of cocoa, worth around $19 million, which had been falsely declared as rubber. The leakage of crops, on top of the other structural challenges to the industry, is leading to frustration throughout the supply chain. In Duekoue, a town 400 kilometers from Abidjan, Abdul Baudula, the head of a farmers' cooperative that aggregates beans, said that the organization failed to meet its collection targets last season, partly because farmers sold their crops to smugglers. "How do you convince a farmer to accept less money when another trader is offering more?' Baudula said. "We can't control climate change, but smuggling should be something the government can address.'
Daily Mail
06-06-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: Children are being killed because we are too scared of being called racist. When will this dangerous madness end?
We've been here before and we'll be here again. Twenty-five years ago, a tragic eight-year-old girl called Victoria Climbie was tortured, starved and beaten to death while the authorities who could have saved her did nothing. Victoria was born in the Cote d'Ivoire, what we used to call the Ivory Coast, and brought to Britain by her great-aunt.
