Abidjan, Sept 9 - Workers at Ivory Coast's Coffee and Cocoa Bourse stepped up a strike over pay arrears on Tuesday, halting the minimum service they have been providing at the marketing body, a union representative said.
"We stopped minimum service this morning, the single (export) office in San Pedro is closed. The single office in Abidjan is closed. The server is shut down. In short the system is paralysed," Alain Koudou of the SYNASGFICC cocoa sector union told Reuters.
A Reuters reporter said the registration office at the BCC offices in Abidjan was locked and there appeared to be nobody inside. Ivory Coast is the world's top cocoa grower.
Union members said if any officials were working, they could only be processing export registrations already submitted on Monday, because the systems were not operating on Tuesday.
Exporters confirmed on Tuesday that the cocoa export registration system was not working properly but said, for now, the impact was negligible due to low volumes. The industry is currently focussing on the 2008/09 season, which starts Oct. 1.
Exporters estimated that around 7,000 tonnes of beans were delivered to Ivory Coast's two ports in the week of 1-7 Sept.
Workers at the BCC say they are owed three months of back pay because they have not been paid since top officials at the industry body were removed and arrested nearly three months ago in an anti-graft operation launched by President Laurent Gbagbo.
The crisis over pay has been compounded by wrangling within the BCC, where there is a power struggle between administrators over who is legally in charge following the arrests.
"It is not that the BCC is broke," said Koudou. "The coffers are full. It is a problem of leadership and who can actually sign the cheques."
SHUT-DOWN WARNING
Union members said last week they had begun strike action, but exporters said they had seen little impact on export registrations and other operations during a lull in harvesting activities before the new main crop season starts.
But fears have been growing that turmoil within the BCC and other industry bodies could cause disruption when the new season launches and the volumes of cocoa start rising.
"The workers at the single office (at the port) said that they were going to shut down the registration system and they did so this morning," said the director of one Abidjan-based cocoa exporting company.
"We can no longer register but it's not too serious as there is not very much activity aside from the grinding," he added.
Another director said that they had faced glitches in the system and could not get confirmation for cocoa they had tried to register for export.
The cocoa strike comes at a politically sensitive time as the country is also due to hold presidential elections on Nov. 30 to draw a line under a crisis sparked by a brief 2002-2003 war, which divided the country.
Although the authorities say the long-awaited polls can still be held on time, election experts say this is unlikely as preparations are far behind schedule.