Archive for category: Latest News

Abidjan, 04 March 2021. The ICCO Expert Working Group on Stocks (EWGS) met via videoconference today, Thursday 4 March 2021 to review the level of estimated and identified world cocoa bean stocks as at the end of the 2019/20 cocoa year. The EWGS is composed of experts in the cocoa field who meet at the invitation of the ICCO.

Notes:Totals and differences may differ due to rounding.

The EWGS now notes that a gap of 410,000 tonnes exists between the annual assessment of the estimated and identified cocoa bean stocks worldwide and the ICCO’s statistically-derived stocks figure. This is due to the existence of stocks held in non-reporting locations of which Asia is the most significant area.

While the ICCO Secretariat maintains, so far, its supply surplus estimate of 10,000 tonnes for 2019/20 as published in its latest QBCS, it may revise that figure in its next Bulletin due at the end of May 2021, taking into account the outcome of this survey.

For more information, please contact Carlos Follana, Marketing and Communication Coordinator, International Cocoa Organization, ICCO Building, II Plateaux ENA – Avenue Boga Doudou, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire; Tel: +225 22 51 49 50/51 | Fax: +225 22 51 49 79 | E-mail: Carlos.Follana@icco.org

Abidjan, 28 January 2021. The ICCO Expert Working Group on Stocks (EWGS) met via videoconference today, Thursday 28 January 2021 to review the level of European cocoa bean stocks as per the ICCO survey. The survey has been conducted every year since 2000 and aims to improve transparency in the cocoa market.

The EWGS is composed of experts in the cocoa field who meet, at the invitation of the ICCO, to review and analyse the results of the ICCO’s annual survey of cocoa bean stocks held in warehouses worldwide. However, due to unavoidable circumstances the Group discussed only the European stocks and will in due course conduct another meeting to assess total worldwide stocks.

TABLE: 1 ESTIMATES OF EUROPEAN WAREHOUSE STOCKS OF COCOA

Notes: a/ The estimates of European port-warehouse stocks are based on replies/revised estimates to the latest Secretariat questionnaire as at 21 January 2021.

Results for the survey dated 30 September 2020 as shown in Table 1, depict that European cocoa stocks were 774,651 tonnes as at the end of the 2019/20 cocoa year, representing a reduction of 1.5% (down by 11,734 tonnes) compared with the previous season. Due caution should however be exercised in interpreting these results, as not all warehouse-keepers responded and the same values were considered for two warehouses (holding about 90,000 tonnes of stocks altogether) that did not reply to the survey.

TABLE 2: COMPARISON OF ICE FUTURES EUROPE COCOA BEAN STOCKS WITH ICCO SURVEY DATA AS AT 30 SEPTEMBER 2020

The regular publication of information on terminal market stocks of cocoa by ICE Futures Europe provides an additional check on the accuracy of the ICCO survey results. As seen in Table 2, the percentage of terminal market stocks was reduced by 8% from 169,510 tonnes at the end of the 2018/19 season to 156,730 tonnes for the 2019/20 season. It is worth noting that the ICE Futures Europe stocks represented almost 20% of the overall cocoa stocks of the ICCO European stocks survey as at the end of the 2019/20 cocoa year.

Cocoa stocks published by ICE Futures Europe are generally lower than the volume of cocoa identified by the ICCO survey for two main reasons. Firstly, they represent only part of the cocoa stocks held by warehouse-keepers, as they are restricted to graded cocoa held in ICE Futures Europe nominated warehouses. On the contrary, the ICCO survey endeavours to seek information on all cocoa stocks held by the warehouses, and includes cocoa destined for the terminal market as well as cocoa stocks held by warehouse-keepers for traders, cocoa processors and chocolate manufacturers. The ICCO survey figure also compiles data from a wider geographical area and includes cocoa stored in port warehouses that are outside the ICE Futures Europe designated Delivery Area.

The EWGS would like to note that another meeting will be conveyed to assess the total estimated world stocks of cocoa beans and a press release will be issued in due course.

For more information, please contact Carlos Follana, Marketing and Communication Coordinator, International Cocoa Organization, ICCO Building, II Plateaux ENA – Avenue Boga Doudou, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire; Tel: +225 22 51 49 50/51 | Fax: +225 22 51 49 79 | E-mail: Carlos.Follana@icco.org

Abidjan, 16 December 2020 – During the celebration of its 34th Special Session, the International Cocoa Council has amended the Annex “C” of the ICA, 2010 in application of Rule 24 Reconsideration of a decision of the Administrative Rules of the ICCO. This Annex “C” replaces the previous version approved by the Council at its 102nd regular session in September 2020.

Abidjan, 02 December 2020 – The International Cocoa Organization today releases its revised estimates of world production, grindings, and stocks of cocoa beans for the 2019/20 and 2018/19 cocoa years, summarized below. The data published in Issue No. 4 – Volume XLVI – Cocoa Year 2019/20 of the Quarterly Bulletin of Cocoa Statistics, reflect the most recent information available to the Secretariat as at the beginning of November 2020.

In order to generate more value-added information for the cocoa sector and to provide its readers with a better user experience, the new Quarterly Bulletin of Cocoa Statistics has been totally rebranded with a more visual and user-friendly design, for a better and faster understanding of the data by its readers. Besides graphical illustrations of the global market, for visualization purposes, the information in each section also has been captured in several maps, pie charts and Sankey diagrams. In addition, the Bulletin includes comments on crop and demand developments in the leading countries and a review of price movements on international markets for cocoa beans during the 2019/20 season. Furthermore, the document contains a valuable annex with historical data updated on a quarterly basis by the Organization’s Statistics Section.

Statistical information on trade in cocoa beans, cocoa products and chocolate, by country and by region, published in this edition, covers annual data from 2016/17 to 2018/19 and quarterly statistics for the period July-September 2018 to January-March 2020. Details of destination of exports and origin of imports for leading cocoa exporting countries are also provided.

Summary of revised estimates

Notes:
a/   Estimates published in Quarterly Bulletin of Cocoa Statistics, Vol. XLVI – No. 3 –  Cocoa year 2019/20
b/   Surplus/deficit: net world crop (gross crop adjusted for loss in weight) minus grindings
Totals may differ due to rounding.

Copies of the Quarterly Bulletin of Cocoa Statistics, in Microsoft Excel and Adobe PDF formats, can be now ordered from the new ICCO eShop: www.icco.org/shop

The International Cocoa Organization is pleased to announce that the greatly expanded and improved World Cocoa Directory is now available in printed and online editions.

The new edition of the Directory, last published in 2016, now contains over 4,500 entries, including 282 new entries and 1,216 amendments, to provide the most up-to-date guide to cocoa and chocolate companies and organizations worldwide.

Reflecting both the Organization’s comprehensive connections within the cocoa and chocolate industry, and a great deal of thorough research, the new Directory includes full contact details as well as indexes based on both geography and activity category for the thousands of organizations included.

World Cocoa Directory 2019/2020

Activity categories in this new edition include :

• Trade and Industry Associations, Government bodies and NGOs
• Associations of farmers, smallholders and cooperatives
• Carriers and Transport Lines, as well shipping brokers
• Certification bodies and suppliers of certified cocoa
• Chocolate manufacturers, chocolatiers and artisanal chocolate makers
• Chocolate and confectionery distributors and suppliers                
• Exporters of raw and semi-finished cocoa from origin countries
• Fumigation, pesticides and fertiliser suppliers and services
• Trade and industry publications, consultants and other cocoa sector information resources
• Manufacturers and suppliers of cocoa processing and handling plant and machinery, including allied quality instrumentation, as well as manufacturers and suppliers of chocolate and confectionery production equipment
• Suppliers of industrial packaging, systems and components for cocoa beans, cocoa products and semi-processed chocolate, including bagging lines, sacks and container liners, as well as suppliers of retail packaging machinery and products
• Processors of cocoa beans into semi-finished products, suppliers of semi-finished products to industry, processors and suppliers of cocoa by-products and processors of semi-finished cocoa products into chocolate confectionery
• Cocoa research institutions, chocolate and cocoa museums and universities involved in cocoa research
• Superintendents of cocoa and quality inspection services
• Importers, traders and brokers of physical cocoa as well as futures brokers and traders, insurance companies and banks and law firms specialized in commodity and international trading
• Warehouse keepers, port authorities, port facilities suppliers, port operators, providers of dessicants and buyers of damaged cargoes 

The printed edition of the World Cocoa Directory 2019/2020 is very easy to use, with a traditional alphabetical listing and two indexes (by country and by activity category) and as such is the ideal tool to facilitate contact business contacts and opportunities and present a fascinating 360 degree view of the world’s cocoa and chocolate industry. This version comes in a hand-bound, hard cover edition, with clear text on hard-wearing silk paper, and very much a luxury item at €390 per copy, which includes express courier charges worldwide

>>> Shop now

Generous discounts are given for multiple copy sales, and further details of these are available from Philippe Pestelle at the ICCO (pestelle.philippe@icco.org).