89th ICCO session
The 89th session of the International Cocoa Council was held at the Radisson Blu Zurich Airport hotel in Zurich this year.
Delegates were welcomed to Switzerland by the State Secretary, Her Excellency Marie-Gabrielle Ineischen-Fleisch, who reminded delegates of her country’s crucial role in the world’s chocolate sector, and also highlighted ongoing Swiss efforts in developing sustainability in the cocoa supply chain.
Among the issues under discussion in Zurich were the plans for the second edition of the World Cocoa Conference (WCC) at the RAI Convention Centre in Amsterdam in June. ICCO executive director Dr Jean-Marc Anga reported that four ministers were already scheduled to be on hand officially to open the event. Besides a selection of speakers and panelists from around the world, he added, the Amsterdam WCC was already guaranteed to bring together a host of top executives from the world’s largest cocoa and chocolate companies.
Dr Anga also explained that cocoa farmers from all over the world were to be sponsored to attend the conference, bringing their voices to the debate on the most important issues in cocoa that were to be tackled at the meeting.
The World Cocoa Foundation, Caobisco and the Dutch Sustainable Trade Initiative IDH among several others, were all involved in special sessions to take place alongside the main conference, Dr Anga said, and the Dutch group of stakeholder organisations was planning on holding a series of interactive sessions to enlarge on and develop the themes of the WCC. The conference dinner is to be held in Amsterdam’s National Maritime Museum.
