London cocoa flavour panel
Some of the best cocoa in the world is to be examined as the International Cocoa Organization’s Ad hoc Panel on Fine or Flavour Cocoa meets in London on 18 September.
The panel, made up of experts from producing and consuming countries around the world, will review and if necessary revise Annex ‘C’ of the International Cocoa Agreement 2010, which determines the proportion in which its listed countries produce and export fine or flavour cocoa.
Fine or flavour cocoa, currently making up only about five per cent of world production, recently has been increasingly sought after, as chocolate manufacturers use it for upmarket and speciality products, and fine chocolatiers require its distinctive characteristics in aroma and flavour to enhance and differentiate their ranges.
The countries producing fine or flavour cocoa have been asked to submit proposals for inclusion in Annex ‘C’ and to justify the percentages of the type that they provide. The panel will look at the specific conditions in each producing country, including production levels, export deliveries, quality assessment and traders’ and chocolate manufacturers’ confidence in the origin in order to come to a recommendation.
More details of the work of the Fine or Flavour Cocoa Panel are available from the ICCO website (http://www.icco.org/about-cocoa/fine-or-flavour-cocoa.html), where you can also see the current list of countries producing this type of cocoa.
