Cocoa resources reviewed
The world’s largest cocoa producing countries should marshal their resources with a view to avoiding oversupply in the future and helping ensure equitable prices, ICCO executive director Dr Jean-Marc Anga told attendees at the opening of the 91st session of the International Cocoa Council in Abidjan in late March.
The meetings, hosted by the Government of Côte d’Ivoire, the world’s largest cocoa producing country, were officially opened by Côte d’Ivoire’s Prime Minister, Daniel Kablan Duncan, and attended by Jean Louis Billon, Minister of Trade, Agriculture Minister Sangafowa Coulibaly, and dignitaries from several of the organisation’s 48 member countries.
The week long session included meetings of the ICCO’s Economics and Administration and Finance Committees, as well as of the Consultative Board on the World Cocoa Economy, which includes representatives of the major processors, chocolate manufacturers, and NGOs involved in the cocoa sector.
Anga’s presentation called on the five largest producing countries to conduct an inventory of their cocoa resources, and develop national strategies in line with demand, so as to avoid a negative effect on the market and on the price that farmers receive for their cocoa.
The meetings reported on all of the ICCO’s planned projects and activities, and on a number of upcoming events, including the first official announcement of the third edition of the successful World Cocoa Conference.
Anga explained that the Conference, hosted by the Government of the Dominican Republic, has been rescheduled for 24-28 May 2016 at the Barceló Bávaro Convention Center, Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic.
