‘Socfin/Bolloré plantations: rising profits, ongoing repression’ 25 May 2022

From Sierra Leone to Nigeria, through Cameroon, Guinea and Ivory Coast, communities living near the industrial palm oil and rubber plantations of Socfin/Bolloré are fighting for their rights and against repression. On 25 and 31 May 2022, the Bolloré and Socfin groups will hold their annual meetings online amidst rising profits. Socfin’s profits exploded in 2021 to reach 80.4 million euros, its highest figure since at least 2014 due to increasing prices for palm oil and rubber.[1] These high profits are likely to continue in 2022 as the war in Ukraine has cut sunflower oil supplies and increased global demand and the price of palm oil. In 2021, the Bolloré Group, which owns nearly 40% of Socfin, also booked a staggering profit of 6 billion euros.

These profits come at a high cost for communities living near the plantations. In particular, the company’s rush to get its plantations certified as “sustainable” is leading to a lot of trouble on the ground. Local communities were quite shocked to learn that Socfin had hired an international consultancy (SCS Global) to audit its African plantations in order to obtain the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certificate, despite many land conflicts and unresolved social and environmental issues. Last July, local communities in Cameroon held a press conference to protest against the certification awarded to Socfin’s subsidiary Safacam by the RSPO. As Emmanuel Elong, a leader of the local organization Synaparcam, put it: “Safacam does not comply with various social and environmental RSPO criteria”. At least two community members reported intimidation related to the audit.[2] In Ivory Coast where Socfin has its SOGB plantations, village chiefs and the Association of Displaced Villages also publicly expressed their opposition to SOGB’s certification because of unresolved land issues.[3]

…Socfin also provides managerial services to other plantations ridden with conflicts, as with Soguipah in Guinea.[7] In December 2021, Soguipah workers went on strike to protest against bad working conditions and unpaid wages, and their grievances have still not been resolved. Yet, Socfin has just announced that it will cease working with Soguipah by the end of this year. Companies like Socfin extract immense profits from the lands and labour of communities in Africa and Asia. Bolloré's continuous involvement in Socfin despite alleged human rights abuses, unresolved land conflicts and greenwashing practices is unacceptable. “We will never stop fighting for our land and we will continue to resist the repression led by Socfin and Bolloré to silence us” says Emmanuel Elong