ABIDJAN (Reuters) – Ivory Coast’s customs have seized around 2,000 metric tons of falsely declared cocoa beans worth around $19 million at its main port in Abidjan, two customs sources and one judicial source said on Tuesday.
Cocoa, the main ingredient in chocolate, is usually smuggled over Ivory Coast’s western border to Guinea and Liberia where traffickers pay above the local farmgate price for the commodity.
However, last week Ivorian customs discovered that a cocoa exporter had made a false declaration to pay less tax on the shipment at the port.
They seized 110 containers that according to the document were supposed to contain rubber, a customs officer familiar with the case told Reuters.
“To my knowledge, this is the first time we’ve made such a seizure. 2,000 tons, or around 15 million pounds, is a huge amount,” another officer said.
The tax on this shipment should have been 19.5%, including the 14.5% tax on cocoa exports and the 5% registration tax. In that case, the Ivorian state would have collected 2.9 million pounds in taxes.
Meanwhile, the tax on rubber exports is only 1.5%.
A source close to the judicial authorities said this fraud was possible due to the high level of corruption in the administration and the complicity of various departments.
“We seized this case … and we are still investigating. We can’t say anything at the moment,” said a prosecutor close to the case.
($1 = 0.7918 pounds)
(Reporting by Ange Aboa; Writing by Anait Miridzhanian; editing by David Evans)
