Bicec loses US$28.5M damages claim in French court over cocoa, coffee loans

CAMEROON – Bicec has lost a CFA16.4 billion (US$28.5M) damages claim in France linked to loans extended to three Cameroonian cocoa and coffee operators after the Paris Court of Appeal found that the bank had not sufficiently established that alleged commodity losses resulted from failures by the stock-monitoring company. 

In a January 29, 2026 ruling, corrected on February 24, the court rejected claims by Banque internationale du Cameroun pour l’épargne et le crédit (Bicec) against Unicontrol Commodity Cameroun (UCC), which monitored stocks securing the financing, and Katoen Natie-Commodities BV, which was jointly liable for the third-party custodian’s obligations. 

Bicec had sought CFA16.402 billion in damages, corresponding to losses it said it suffered and matching amounts it was separately seeking from Producam, Delta Industries International and Argia in Cameroon. (Business in Cameroon) 

The French court did not determine how much the three borrowers still owe Bicec and did not release them from their obligations. The ruling also removed 300,000 Special Drawing Rights in damages awarded to Bicec by the Paris Commercial Court in November 2021. 

Bicec must additionally pay €20,000 each to Katoen Natie-Commodities and AIG Europe in legal costs. 

The dispute arose from campaign financing provided to Producam, Delta Industries International and Argia, which were active in Cameroon’s cocoa and coffee sectors. 

Bicec used commodities stored at the companies’ facilities as security. Third-party custody agreements were signed with Producam and Delta in January 2017 and with Argia in October 2017. UCC was responsible for monitoring commodity movements and supervising the stocks on behalf of the bank. 

In 2019, Bicec reported alleged shortages of cocoa and coffee. It cited between 444 and 771 tonnes of cocoa at Argia, between 661 and 1,802 tonnes of cocoa and between 1,605 and 2,529.4 tonnes of coffee at Delta, and 7,300 tonnes of cocoa at Producam. The court did not recognize these figures as established losses.  

The court also found difficulties linking the custody agreements to the commodities involved. Bicec did not produce written pledge agreements with the three borrowers and had not provided amendments extending some agreements to products outside their original scope. 

The appeals court concluded that the evidence did not sufficiently establish that UCC’s alleged failures caused the losses claimed by Bicec. 

Reports submitted by consulting firm K2C referred to a defective door at a Delta warehouse and possible unauthorized commodity movements. However, the court found that some evidence relied on third-party statements or uncorroborated allegations. 

The court also noted that Bicec could have requested a court-supervised assessment of the stocks but did not do so. A precautionary seizure at a Delta warehouse in May 2019 also failed to produce an adversarial inventory capable of precisely establishing the commodities present. 

The ruling does not resolve Bicec’s separate recovery efforts against Producam, Delta and Argia in Cameroon. The CFA16.4 billion represented compensation sought from UCC and Katoen Natie and cannot be reliably divided among the three borrowers based on the French ruling alone. 

The February 24 correction clarified that Bicec, rather than another party, was the claimant whose damages requests against UCC and Katoen Natie had been rejected. 

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