ICCO expresses support for Indonesia following earthquake and tsunami

Abidjan, 4 October 2018 — The Executive Director, Mr. Michel Arrion, on behalf of the International Cocoa Organization, has expressed sincere condolences to the Government and people of Indonesia, following the earthquake and tsunami that devastated parts of the island of Sulawesi in late September.

It appears as of this date that well over 1,500 people have been killed and many more injured, displaced or made homeless by the disaster. Besides the destruction and loss of life, it appears that infrastructure has been severely affected as well, where aid is most desperately needed.

The island of Sulawesi is the most important cocoa producing area in the country and many farmers could well be affected by the effects of the earthquake and tsunami.

The Organization would like to show its firm support to Indonesia, as an important Member country. The ICCO would also encourage all Member and Observer countries, as well as its partners in the cocoa and chocolate industry, to liaise with the Indonesian government in order to assist in any way possible.

ICCO appoints Mr Michel Arrion as Executive Director of the Organization

Abidjan, 1 October 2018 — The International Cocoa Organization (ICCO), headquartered in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, has announced the appointment of Mr. Michel Arrion as its new Executive Director.

A Belgian national, Mr. Arrion (pictured) is an EU civil servant who has served as Ambassador of the European Union in various African countries such as Nigeria, Rwanda and Côte d’Ivoire.Mr. Arrion is looking forward to the opportunity to use his experience and knowledge of the cocoa sector to work with Producers and Consumers to surmount the challenges facing the sector.

Mr. Arrion was appointed by consensus at the late September meeting of the International Cocoa Council, the Organization’s governing body. He will serve a five-year term in the post.

The Organization is pleased to welcome Mr. Arrion and at the same time thank the outgoing Executive Director, Dr. Jean Marc Anga, for his service.

August 2018 Quarterly Bulletin of Cocoa Statistics – Rev.1

Abidjan, 31 August 2018–The International Cocoa Organization today released its revised forecasts for the current 2017/2018 cocoa year and revised estimates for 2016/2017 of world production, grindings and stocks of cocoa beans, summarized below. The data published in Issue No. 3 – Volume XLIV – Cocoa year 2017/2018 of the Quarterly Bulletin of Cocoa Statistics reflect the most recent information available to the Secretariat as at the beginning of August 2018.

Summary of revised forecasts and estimates

 

Cocoa year
(Oct-Sep)		 2016/2017 2017/2018 Year-on-year change
Revised
estimates		 Previous
forecasts a/		 Revised
forecasts
(thousand tonnes) (Per cent)
World production 4 739
 4 587
 4 645
    – 94  – 2.0%
World grindings 4 396
 4 531
 4 568
  + 172 + 3.9%
Surplus/deficit b/ + 296  + 10 + 31
 
End-of-season stocks 1 726
 1 737
 1 757
 + 31  + 1.8%
Stocks/Grindings ratio 39.3% 38.3% 38.5%

Notes:
a/   Estimates published in Quarterly Bulletin of Cocoa Statistics, Vol. XLIV – No. 2 – Cocoa year 2017/2018
b/   Surplus/deficit: net world crop (gross crop adjusted for loss in weight) minus grindings
Totals may differ due to rounding.

This issue of the Bulletin contains the Secretariat’s revised forecasts for the 2017/2018 cocoa year as well as data for the past four years of production and grindings of cocoa beans, detailed by country. The main features of the global cocoa market are illustrated in colour charts. In addition, it includes comments on crop and demand prospects in the leading countries for the current season, and a review of price developments on international markets for cocoa beans during the April-June quarter of 2018.

Statistical information on trade in cocoa beans, cocoa products and chocolate, by country and by region, published in this edition, covers annual data from 2014/2015 to 2016/2017 and quarterly statistics for the period April-June 2016 to October-December 2017. Details of origin of imports and destination of exports for leading cocoa importing countries are also provided. Historical statistics on cocoa trade and consumption, by country and by region, for the period 2008/2009 to 2016/2017 are presented for reference.

Copies of the Quarterly Bulletin of Cocoa Statistics, including Microsoft Excel files and Adobe PDF format [media-downloader media_id=”2514″ texts=”can be ordered by completing and returning this form “]or from the ICCO Secretariat at the address below:

International Cocoa Organization
06 P.O. Box 6891
Abidjan 06
Côte d’Ivoire

Tel:              +225 22 51 49 50/51
Fax:             +225 22 51 49 79
E-mail:         info@icco.org

International Cocoa Council and subsidiary bodies, 24 – 27 September 2018, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

The International Cocoa Council and subsidiary bodies, including the Consultative Board on the World Cocoa Economy, as well as the Economics and Administration and Finance Committees, will meet at the Heden Golf Hotel, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, 24 – 27 September 2018.

Provisional Timetable of Meetings, 24 – 27 September 2018, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

ED(MEM) 1066/Rev.2
English French Spanish Russian

Arrangements for the September 2018 meetings

ED(MEM) 1067
English French Spanish Russian

International Cocoa Council: Draft Agenda

ICC-98-1
English French Spanish Russian

Administration and Finance Committee: Draft Agenda

AF-14-1
English French Spanish Russian

Economics Committee: Draft Agenda

EC-12-1
English French Spanish Russian

Consultative Board on the World Cocoa Economy: Draft Agenda

CB-37-1
English French Spanish Russian

Proceedings of the International Symposium on Cocoa Research 2017

INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON COCOA RESEARCH 2017

PROCEEDINGS

ACTES

ACTAS

INTRODUCTION

Thematic 1: Genetics and Breeding

Thematic 2: Agronomy and cropping systems

Thematic 3: Pest and Diseases

Thematic 4: Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation

Thematic 5: Quality, flavor/sensory evaluation and post-harvest

Thematic 6: Cadmium contaminant and food safety

Thematic 7: Marketing, socio-economics, technology transfer and adoption

CONCLUSION

 

INTRODUCTION

The first edition of the International Symposium on Cocoa Research (ISCR 2017) was jointly organized by the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) and the Government of Peru from 13 – 17 November 2017 at Swissôtel Hotel, Lima, Peru.

The objective of the symposium was to provide a platform for the cocoa community and scientists involved in cocoa research to brainstorm on the latest findings in research and foster greater research collaboration among researchers, as well to agree on priorities for collective action.

The general theme of the ISCR 2017 was “Promoting Advances in Research to Enhance the Profitability of Cocoa Farming”. In addition, the symposium focused on seven thematic areas as follows:

Thematic Area 1 (T1)      – Genetics and breeding

Thematic Area 2 (T2)      – Cocoa agronomy and cropping systems

Thematic Area 3 (T3)      – Pests and diseases

Thematic Area 4 (T4)      – Climate change adaptation and mitigation

Thematic Area 5 (T5)      – Quality, flavor/sensory evaluation and post-harvest

Thematic Area 6 (T6)      – Cadmium contaminant and food safety

Thematic Area 7 (T7)      – Marketing, socio-economics, technology transfer and adoption

All research papers presented at the Symposium were reviewed and evaluated by a Scientific Committee composed of the following members.

S/N Name Organization / Institution
1 Ms Brigitte Laliberté (Chairperson) Bioversity International, Rome, Italy
2 Dr Martin Gilmour Mars Global Chocolate, UK
3 Dr Franklin Manu Amoah Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG), Ghana
4 Professor Paul Hadley University of Reading, UK
5 Dr Verina Ingram Wageningen University, The Netherlands
6 Dr Soetanto Abdoellah Indonesian Cocoa and Coffee Research Institute

(ICCRI), Indonesia
7 Dr Wilbert Phillips-Mora The Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE), Costa Rica
8 Dr Nanga Coulibaly Conseil Café Cacao, Côte d’Ivoire
9 Dr Christian Cilas Centre de coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD), France
10 Professor Path Umaharan University of West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago
11 Professor David Guest The University of Sydney, Australia
12 Dr Michelle End Cocoa Research Association (CRA), UK
13 Dr Elizabeth Johnson Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Jamaica
14 Dr Siela Maximova The Pennsylvania State University, USA
15 Dr Carlos Leyva El Servicio Nacional de Sanidad Agraria (SENASA), Peru

Additional information on the Symposium can be found in the dedicated section of the ICCO website here.

The list of participants to the Symposium can be accessed via the following link: [media-downloader media_id=”3497″ texts=” List of participants ISCR 2017.”]

Welcome Addresses and Speeches

Senor Jose Manuel Hernandez, Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation of Peru

Senor Jaime Salomon Salomon, Vice Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation

Senor Juan Jose Marcelo Risi Carbone, Secretary General, Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation

Dr Jean-Marc Anga, Executive Director of the ICCO ( [media-downloader media_id=”2471″ texts=”Opening Speech”]and [media-downloader media_id=”3522″ texts=”Closing Speech”])

Eng. Jorge Amaya Castillo, Director General, Ministry of Agriculture, and Chairman of the Local Organizing Committee for the ISCR 2017

 

Full Papers and Keynote Presentations

The full papers of the research results presented at ISCR 2017 can be found below. The papers are grouped by thematic areas. Click on the title of the paper to open the full document.

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in the scientific papers, articles and presentations in these proceedings are that of the authors alone and not those of the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO).

Thematic 1: Genetics and Breeding

1. [media-downloader media_id=”2474″ texts=”The future of cacao research: systems science in support of cacao farmers (Keynote presentation)”] – Mark Guiltinan

2. [media-downloader media_id=”3796″ texts=”Exploration of the T. Cacao genome sequence to decipher the incompatibility system of Theobroma cacao and to identify diagnostic markers “](Keynote presentation) – Claire Lanaud et al.

3. [media-downloader media_id=”2531″ texts=”DNA profiling of cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) varieties in the Philippines using microsatellite marker”] – R. R.C. Espino et al.

4. [media-downloader media_id=”2532″ texts=”Potential of recurrent selection for developing improved cocoa varieties in Ghana”] – F.K. Padi et al. 

5. [media-downloader media_id=”2533″ texts=”Mejoramiento genético de cacao en Colombia a través de selección varietal participativa “]- Nubia Martínez Guerrero et al. 

6.[media-downloader media_id=”2534″ texts=” Caracterización morfoagronómica y molecular de la colección de cacao de la federación nacional de cacaoteros de Colombia”] – Nubia Martínez Guerrero et al. 

7. [media-downloader media_id=”2535″ texts=”Identification of a core SNP panel for cacao identity and population analyses”] – A. Mahabir et al.

8. [media-downloader media_id=”2536″ texts=”Candidate SSR tags for fruit and seed traits of Theobroma cacao L. In the International Cocoa Genebank Trinidad”] –  L.A. Motilal et al. 

9. [media-downloader media_id=”3814″ texts=”Assesing genetic diversity of cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) nativo Chuncho in la Convención, Cusco-Perú”] –W.H. Céspedes-Del Pozo et al.

10. [media-downloader media_id=”3804″ texts=”Clasificación intraespecífica de 14 árboles híbridos seleccionados de cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) mediante análisis de conglomerados en Tulumayo”] – P.V. García y L.F. García

11.[media-downloader media_id=”3813″ texts=” Assessment of genetic quality of cacao seed gardens output using single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) markers”] – Pokou N. Desire et al. 

12. [media-downloader media_id=”3799″ texts=”Genetic diversity and genetic structure of wild cacao collected in the oriente using single nucleotide polymorphisms “]- A. A. Sankar et al. 

13. [media-downloader media_id=”3805″ texts=”Characterization biosystems and reproductive biology of Theobroma cacao L. In Puyango Tumbes binational basin “]-B. C. Garcia & F. E Alcocer

14. [media-downloader media_id=”3805″ texts=”Comparative assessment of agronomical performances of six commercial cocoa varieties in on farm progeny trials in Cameroon “]- O. Sounigo et al. 

15. [media-downloader media_id=”4617″ texts=”Assessing the impact of self-incompatibility on cocoa trees in Cameroon”] – Sounigo Olivier et al. 

16. [media-downloader media_id=”3800″ texts=”Fitosanitización como estrategia principal de manejo integrado de enfermedades en cacao en el Perú: tres décadas y media de estudios de epidemiologia y eficiencia de control”] – Rolando A. Ríos-Ruiz et al. 

17. [media-downloader media_id=”3792″ texts=”Participatory model of selection and installation of a seed garden of fine cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) “cacao amazonas Perú” in the amazon region (Peru) “]- R.Laura et al. 

18. [media-downloader media_id=”3806″ texts=”Caracterisation morphologique et moléculaire de variétes de cacaoyer cultivées dans le département de la grand ’anse à Haïti”] – M. Boccara et al. 

19. [media-downloader media_id=”3788″ texts=”The effect of pruning on photosynthetic rate of cacao trees in a novel cropping system “]- R.A.Susanti et al. 

20. [media-downloader media_id=”3787″ texts=” The genomic selection of Theobroma cacao: a new strategy of marker assisted selection to improve breeding efficiency and predict useful traits in new populations”]- F. Ribeyre et al. 

21. [media-downloader media_id=”3795″ texts=”Le phénotypage du cacaoyer : comment estimer la granulométrie des fèves de cacao ?”]- F. Doare et al. 

22. [media-downloader media_id=”3815″ texts=”Adopting reference genotypes to identify off-types in cacao collections – The impacts of climate change variables on vegetative and reproductive development of six genotypes of cacao “]– F. Lahive et al.

23.[media-downloader media_id=”3809″ texts=” Cacao genetic resources: policy options for enhanced exchange and benefit-sharing”] – Brigitte Laliberte and Michael Halewood

24. [media-downloader media_id=”3809″ texts=”Second cycle de sélection récurrente du cacaoyer (Theobroma cacao L.) en Côte d’Ivoire : paramêtres génètiques chez les deux populations constitutives après treize années d’observation”] – G. M. Tahi et al.

25. [media-downloader media_id=”3802″ texts=”Desarrollo de nichos específicos de cacao con alta productividad y calidad sensorial: experiencia ecuatoriana “]– R.G. Loor et al.

26. [media-downloader media_id=”3786″ texts=”Understanding the genetic structure and parentage of the clonal series of cacao UF, CC, PMCT and ARF preserved in the international cacao collection at CATIE (IC3) “]– A. Mata-Quirós et al.

27. [media-downloader media_id=”3810″ texts=”Avances en el estudio de las bases genéticas y organolépticas del cacao fino o de aroma en el Perú”]– J.A. Chia-Wong et al.

28. [media-downloader media_id=”3798″ texts=”Identificación de árboles de cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) con potencial para el mejoramiento de los sistemas de producción en el sur de la Amazonía ecuatoriana “]– D. Calderón et al.

29. [media-downloader media_id=”3811″ texts=”Assessment of variability and stability of pod productivity in cocoa hybrids after a decade of pod production in Nigeria”] – Adewale, B. et al.

 

Thematic 2: Agronomy and cropping systems

30. [media-downloader media_id=”3690″ texts=”Agronomic challenges for productive and sustainable cocoa production: taking stock and perspectives (Keynote presentation)”] – Philippe Bastide, Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD), France

31. [media-downloader media_id=”2475″ texts=”Tree management in monocultures and agroforestry systems affect microclimatic growing conditions and fine-root growth (Keynote presentation) “]– Wiebke Niether, University of Gottingen, Germany

32. [media-downloader media_id=”2558″ texts=”Media type and compost mixtures effect on growth and nutrient uptake of cocoa seedling at the nursery in Ghana “]– A. K. Quaye et al.

33. [media-downloader media_id=”3699″ texts=”Construcción del modelo MNC (MUPV) V1 para la nutrición del cacao “]– R. Ramírez-Pisco et al.

34. [media-downloader media_id=”3708″ texts=”A possible role of potassium in mediating cacao seedling responses to soil water stress “]– E. Djan et al.

35. [media-downloader media_id=”2561″ texts=”Mapping cocoa productivity in Ghana, Indonesia and Côte d’Ivoire “]–  A.J. Daymond et al.

36.[media-downloader media_id=”3687″ texts=”La poda y la producción de cacao (Theobroma cacao L.)”]– E.E, Gutierrez et al.

37. [media-downloader media_id=”3706″ texts=”Agronomic implication of the competitive adsorption between NH4+ and K+ in a selected cocoa growing soil in Nigeria”] – Aikpokpodion Paul E

38. [media-downloader media_id=”2564″ texts=”La sostenibilidad del cultivo de cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) y la respiraciòn del suelo en Colombia”] – A. Marín et al.

39. [media-downloader media_id=”2565″ texts=”Acumulación y extracción de nutrientes en el cultivo del cacao (Theobroma Cacao l.) “]–  E.I. Leiva- Rojas, R. Ramírez- Pisco et al.

40. [media-downloader media_id=”2566″ texts=”Dinámica estomática en cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) “]– C. Hernández et al.

41. [media-downloader media_id=”3698″ texts=”Fenología en fase vegetativa del cacao una aproximación para el manejo inteligente del cultivo “]– Edwin Antonio Gutiérrez Rodríguez et al.

42. [media-downloader media_id=”3696″ texts=”Evaluation of cacao in fruit tree species’ shade system in Ghana “]– M. O. Opoku-Agyeman et al.

43. [media-downloader media_id=”2569″ texts=”Assessment of soil fertility status of cocoa farms around the Ankasa national park in the Jomoro district of the western region of Ghana”] – Arthur, A.A. et al. 

44. [media-downloader media_id=”2570″ texts=”Using integrated plant nutrient management strategy for sustainable and competitive cocoa production in Ghana “]– A. A. Afrifa et al.

45. [media-downloader media_id=”3821″ texts=”Diversity of cocoa pollinators in Cameroon”] – Bagny Beilhe Leïla et al. 

46. [media-downloader media_id=”3703″ texts=”Caracterización de la comunidad microbiana cultivable presente en suelos cacaoteros en una zona productora de Colombia, como contribución al manejo de la fertilidad del suelo “]– H. A. Cordoba et al.

47. [media-downloader media_id=”2573″ texts=”L’hétérogenéite de production entre cacaoyers en Afrique de l’Ouest et Centrale : réflexions sur des voies d’intensification de la culture cacaoyère africaine “]– T. Wibaux et al. 

48. [media-downloader media_id=”2573″ texts=”Business sustainability & improved soil and water management practices in cocoa production systems”]– L. T. Phelan

49. [media-downloader media_id=”2575″ texts=”Selección de genotipos y/o accesiones de cacao silvestres y domesticados tolerantes a la acidez del suelo en el Perú “]– Arévalo-Gardini et al.

50. [media-downloader media_id=”2576″ texts=”Traditional cacao agroforestry in central africa can provide both respectable yields and levels of ecosystem services “]–  S. Saj & P. Jagoret

51. [media-downloader media_id=”2577″ texts=”Comparing productivity and profitability of agroforests and monocultures in Bolivia”] – L. Armengot et al. 

52. [media-downloader media_id=”2578″ texts=”Influence de la pollinisation sur le remplissage des cabosses du cacaoyer- influence of pollination on the number of beans per cacao pod”] – F. Ribeyre et al. 

53. [media-downloader media_id=”2579″ texts=”Conservacion de la viabilidad de la semilla de cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) mediante deshidratacion y conservacion en frio “]– L.F. García et al.

54.[media-downloader media_id=”3694″ texts=” How habitat heterogeneity affects pollinator’s communities in cocoa-based agroforestry systems?”] – O. Deheuvels et al. 

55. Participatory design of sustainable cocoa-based agroforestry systems – a methodological approach in the Dominican Republic – M. Notaro et al. 

56. [media-downloader media_id=”2582″ texts=”Modifying micro-environmental growing conditions for the cacao tree by shade tree pruning”] – W. Niether et al. 

57. [media-downloader media_id=”2583″ texts=”Importancia de la hojarasca en el cultivo de cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) “]– M. K. Mera  et al. 

58. [media-downloader media_id=”2584″ texts=”Establecimiento de un ensayo en sistemas agroforestales de cacao con diferentes niveles de manejo en la amazonía ecuatoriana”] – C. Subía et al. 

59. [media-downloader media_id=”3820″ texts=”Dinámica hídrica del cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) “]– E.I. Leiva-Rojas et al. 

60. [media-downloader media_id=”3702″ texts=”Cocoa vegetative propagation in Nigeria: a search for other suitable rootstock clones “]– 
Adewale, B. et al. 

61. [media-downloader media_id=”2587″ texts=”Influence of agroforestry systems with cacao on soil properties (physical, chemical and microbiological) in Peruvian Amazon “]– Enrique Arévalo-Gardini et al.

62. [media-downloader media_id=”2588″ texts=”Poda coronal en el manejo integrado de la moniliasis en cacao criollo “]– I. Cortes

Thematic 3: Pests and Diseases

63. [media-downloader media_id=”2476″ texts=”A review on the effect of climate change on cacao pests and diseases (Keynote presentation)”] – Julie Flood, Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International (CABI), UK

64. [media-downloader media_id=”2589″ texts=”Estructura poblacional y dinámica espacial y temporal de la monilia en diferentes ambientes “]– Y. Jaimes et al.

65. [media-downloader media_id=”2590″ texts=”Reassessment of the temporal distribution and damage of Bathycoelia thalassina (Herrich-Schaeffer) on cocoa in Ghana”] – G. K. Awudzi et al. 

66. [media-downloader media_id=”2591″ texts=”Variable detection of cacao swollen shoots disease-associated badnaviruses by PCR amplification “]–  G.A. Ameyaw et al. 

67. [media-downloader media_id=”2592″ texts=”Rat and squirrel management using wire mesh trap in cocoa area at CRDC Tawau and Madai Sabah Malaysia”] – Meriam M.Y

68. [media-downloader media_id=”2593″ texts=”Safe movement of cocoa germplasm”] – A.J. Daymond et al. 

69. [media-downloader media_id=”2594″ texts=”Estado fitosanitario en la producción de cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) en la región de Huánuco (Perú): incremento del impacto de Carmenta foraseminis Eichlin “]– O.E. Cabezas et al. 

70. [media-downloader media_id=”3671″ texts=”Habitat adaptation and population of nymphal and adult stages of two cocoa mirid species (Distantiella Theobroma [DIST.] and Sahlbergella singularis Hagl.) “]– R. Adu-Acheampong et al.

71. [media-downloader media_id=”2596″ texts=”Trichoderma asperellum PR11 soil treatments for phytophthora megakarya control “]– Ten Hoopen et al. 

72. [media-downloader media_id=”2597″ texts=”On the use of mathematical modelling to study the impact of phytosanitation on cocoa black pod disease caused by phytophthora megakarya “]– C. Nembot et al.

73. [media-downloader media_id=”2598″ texts=”Molecular genomic diversity of previously undescribed cacao swollen shoot badnaviruses in Nigeria”]– L. Dongo et al. 

74. [media-downloader media_id=”2599″ texts=”Selección de genotipos de cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) de alto rendimiento y con tolerancia a las principales enfermedades que afectan al cultivo en Ecuador”] – Ignacio Sotomayor Cantos et al.

75. [media-downloader media_id=”2600″ texts=”A next generation sequencing approach to elucidate CSSV species profiles “]– Emmanuelle Muller et al. 

76. [media-downloader media_id=”3669″ texts=”Impact of climate change on timing and frequency of fungicide application for the control of phytophthora pod rot of cacao in Nigeria “]– Agbeniyi S.O. et al. 

77. [media-downloader media_id=”3673″ texts=”Fitosanitización como estrategia principal de manejo integrado de enfermedades en cacao en el Perú: tres décadas y media de estudios de epidemiologia y eficiencia de control”] – Rolando A. Ríos-Ruiz

78. [media-downloader media_id=”2603″ texts=”Combining field epidemiological information and genetic diversity to understand phytophthora megakarya dispersion in young cocoa plantations in Cameroon “]– Ndoungué Djeumekop M. M et al. 

79. [media-downloader media_id=”3678″ texts=”Comportamiento de los clones de cacao de la colección del ICT frente a Moniliophthora roreri en Tarapoto, Peru “]– Enrique Arévalo-Gardini et al. 

80. [media-downloader media_id=”2605″ texts=”Rapid and cost effective ‘on-site’ detection of cacao swollen-shoot virus (CSSV)”] – JM.Barnett et al.

81. [media-downloader media_id=”3825″ texts=”Monitoring pest and diseases under different production systems in a long-term trial in Bolivia “]– L. Armengot et al.

82. [media-downloader media_id=”2607″ texts=”La chenille Achaea catocaloides Guenee (Lepidoptera ; Erebidae), une nouvelle menace pour la cacaoculture en Côte d’Ivoire “]– W. P. N’Guessan et al.

83.[media-downloader media_id=”2608″ texts=” Generation of cacao clones with durable resistant against frosty pod rot (Moniliophthora roreri (cif. & par.) Evans et al.) “]– W. Phillips-Mora et al. 

84. [media-downloader media_id=”2609″ texts=”Effects of microclimatic variables on the onset of symptoms and signs of Moniliophthora roreri for three cacao clones in a range of incomplete resistance “]– M.E. Leandro-Muñoz et al.

Thematic 4: Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation

85. Overview of advances in cacao and climate change research and future perspectives (Keynote presentation) [media-downloader media_id=”2477″ texts=”Overview of advances in cacao and climate change research and future perspectives (Keynote presentation) “]– Paul Hadley University of Reading (UOR), UK

86. [media-downloader media_id=”2610″ texts=”Overview of advances in cacao and climate change research and future perspectives (Keynote presentation) “]– Justina O. Lawal et al. 

87. [media-downloader media_id=”2611″ texts=”Impact of drought on morphological, physiological and nutrient use efficiency of elite cacao genotypes from Bahia-Brazil, Tarapoto-Peru and Puerto Rico-USA”] – V. C. Baligar et al.

88. [media-downloader media_id=”2612″ texts=”Climate variability, deforestation and cocoa production shifts in Ghana. a threat or a source of innovation? “]– F. Ruf

89. [media-downloader media_id=”2613″ texts=”Crecimiento y desarrollo del cultivo del cacao en bosque húmedo premontano (BH-PM) y bosque húmedo tropical (BH-T) influenciado por el fenómeno del niño”] – I.C. Urueta et al. 

90. [media-downloader media_id=”3654″ texts=”Global climate change impacts on cocoa”] – Christian Bunn et al.

91. [media-downloader media_id=”2615″ texts=”The impacts of climate change variables on vegetative and reproductive development of six genotypes of cacao”] – F. Lahive et al.

92. [media-downloader media_id=”3656″ texts=”Exploring cacao genetic diversity for resilience to climate change – validating or contradicting current predictive models of production suitability”] – V. Medina et al. 

93. [media-downloader media_id=”2617″ texts=”Reciprocal effects of soil moisture dynamics and land-use systems with cacao in alto Beni, Bolivia “]– W. Niether et al. 

94. [media-downloader media_id=”2618″ texts=”Evaluación de los requerimientos hídricos actuales y futuros, bajo escenarios de cambio climático en cultivos de cacao en el municipio de Nilo, Cundinamarca. Colombia -“] P. Bermeo et al. 

95. [media-downloader media_id=”3655″ texts=”Fertiriego en el cultivo de cacao alternativa de mitigacion ante el cambio climatico para la region Ucayali “]– A. Camacho et al.

Thematic 5: Quality, flavour / sensory evaluation and post-harvest

96. [media-downloader media_id=”2478″ texts=”Elements of a harmonized international standard for cocoa flavour assessment and evidence of evidence for applying the concept of “terroir” in cocoa flavour and quality attributes (Keynote presentation) “]– Darin Sukha, University of The West Indies (UWI), Trinidad And Tobago

97. [media-downloader media_id=”2620″ texts=”A preliminary investigation into the effect of variety on the chemical composition of cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) pulp”] – R.K. Kalloo et al. 

98. [media-downloader media_id=”3784″ texts=”Advances on genetical and naturally induced variations for fine flavors and aromas in Theobroma cacao”] – A.B. Eskes et al. 

99. [media-downloader media_id=”2622″ texts=”Adaptation du processus de fermentation aux contraintes locales. Application au cacao du Sambirano de Madagascar “]– F. Davrieux et al. 

100. [media-downloader media_id=”3776″ texts=”Comparison of the drying behavior of fermented cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) beans dried in a cocoa house, greenhouse and mechanical oven”] – Saheeda Mujaffar et al. 

101. [media-downloader media_id=”2624″ texts=”Sensing cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) beans fermentation by electronic nose system “]- Juzhong Tan et al. 

102. [media-downloader media_id=”3828″ texts=”The impact of pollen donor on flavor in cocoa”] – Darin A. Sukha et al. 

103.[media-downloader media_id=”3772″ texts=” Evidence for applying the concept of “terroir” in cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) flavour and quality attributes”] –  Darin A. Sukha et al. 

104. [media-downloader media_id=”2627″ texts=”Desarrollo e implementación de un prototipo de acero inoxidable para evaluar el proceso de fermentación de granos de cacao”] – W. Ipanaqué  et al. 

105. [media-downloader media_id=”2628″ texts=”Desarrollo e implementación de un software utilizando sistemas embebidos para el proceso de fermentación de cacao y su monitoreo remoto a través de web”] – W. Ipanaqué et al. 

106. [media-downloader media_id=”3782″ texts=”Aislamiento e identificacion de microorganismos presentes durante el proceso de fermentacion de Theobroma cacao L., variedad Chuncho del Cuzco”] – L.G. Salazar et al. 

107. [media-downloader media_id=”2630″ texts=”Quality profile of Peruvian dark chocolate: a preliminary approach “]- R.A. Mejía, Ruiz et al. 

108.[media-downloader media_id=”2631″ texts=”Two molecules newly identified by mass spectrometry in fermented cocoa beans impact chocolate sensory quality”] – Noémie Fayeulle et al. 

109. [media-downloader media_id=”2632″ texts=”Fermentation progression and quality attributes of Trinitario and Refractario cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) hybrid groups at the international cocoa genebank trinidad (ICGT) – opportunities for genetic branding”] – N.A. Ali et al.

110. [media-downloader media_id=”3780″ texts=”Celebrating high quality cocoa production and diversity of flavours around the world – key lessons learnt from 6 editions since its creation in 2009″] – B. Laliberté et al. 

111. [media-downloader media_id=”2634″ texts=”The use of chloroplast markers for the traceability of certified sustainably produced cacao (Theobroma cacao) in the chocolate industry “]- P. Lafargue Molina et al. 

112. [media-downloader media_id=”2635″ texts=”Chemical study and antioxidant activity of Piura´s white cocoa”] – J. Blancas et al. 

113. [media-downloader media_id=”3829″ texts=”Sensory and GC-O analyses of cocoa and chocolate along the cocoa production chain”] – S. Nottelmann et al. 

114.[media-downloader media_id=”2637″ texts=”Physiological response in beans of three cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) cultivars to micro-environmental growing conditions in cacao agroforestry systems and monocultures under conventional and organic management”] – W. Niether et al. 

115. [media-downloader media_id=”2638″ texts=”Creando sistemas prácticos e inclusivos para el análisis sensorial del cacao”] – J. Baumgartner et al. 

116. [media-downloader media_id=”3771″ texts=”Colecta y estudio de las caracteristicas morfologicas y organolepticas en fruta fresca y licor de arboles de cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) con atributos de poseer caracteristicas de fino y de aroma”] – R.P. Saavedra-Arbildo et al. 

117. [media-downloader media_id=”3778″ texts=”Chemical-nutritional profile and antioxidant activity of the couverture chocolate of the Peruvian chocolate factory la Ibérica”] – G. Bobadilla et al. 

118. [media-downloader media_id=”2641″ texts=”New resistant cocoa selections from Costa Rica have fine aroma potential “]– E. Hegmann et al. 

119. [media-downloader media_id=”3767″ texts=”Optimization of the cocoa beans (Theobroma cacao L.) fermentation – the impact of a pre-fermentation beans exposure on fermentation time and final flavor”] – B. Bimont et al. 

120.[media-downloader media_id=”3781″ texts=” Cacao fino y de aroma: una alternativa para la agroexportacion”] – V. Vargas y M. Vásquez

 

            Thematic 6: Cadmium contaminant and food safety

121. [media-downloader media_id=”2479″ texts=”Mitigation of cadmium bioaccumulation in cacao through soil remediation (Keynote presentation)”]– Gideon Ramtahal, The University of The West Indies, Trinidad And Tobago

122. [media-downloader media_id=”3631″ texts=”Health risk assessment of selected heavy metals in some imported chocolates sold in southwestern, Nigeria “]- Aikpokpodion Paul E. and Asowata F.E 

123. [media-downloader media_id=”2645″ texts=”Niveles de cadmio en el chocolate: NM y ECA, sí; OTC, no.”] – Santiago Pastor Soplin

124. [media-downloader media_id=”3632″ texts=”Efecto del tratamiento con 3 cepas de streptomicetos en la acumulación de cadmio en plantas de Theobroma cacao L”] –A.G. Revoredo, J. Hurtado 

125. [media-downloader media_id=”3633″ texts=””Cocoasafe”: capacity building and knowledge sharing in sps in cocoa in South East Asia and the Pacific”] – J. Crozier et al. 

126.[media-downloader media_id=”2645″ texts=”Metales pesados en suelos, hojas y granos de zonas cacaoteras del Peru “]– Arévalo-Hernández et al. 

127. [media-downloader media_id=”2649″ texts=”Acumulación de cadmio en seis genotipos de cacao utilizados como patrón”] – Chupillon-Cubas et al. 

128. [media-downloader media_id=”2650″ texts=”Microorganismos cultivables asociados a cadmio (CD) presentes en suelos cacaoteros de los municipios de Yacopí y Nilo, como estrategia de biorremediación”] – J. Cáceres, E. Torres

 

Thematic 7: Marketing, socio-economics, technology transfer and adoption

129. [media-downloader media_id=”2657″ texts=”From labour demand to business prospects for rural youth a study in the Fanteakwa district of Ghana”] (Keynote presentation) – F. Amon-Armah et al 

130. [media-downloader media_id=”2651″ texts=”Shocks and factors influencing welfare among cocoa farming households in cross-rivers state, Nigeria”] – Lawal, J.O. et al. 

131.[media-downloader media_id=”3617″ texts=”Factors influencing the use of labour saving technologies on cocoa farms in Nigeria”] – Lawal, J.O. et al 

132. [media-downloader media_id=”2653″ texts=”Commitments vs flexibility regarding take-up of pension savings accounts: a randomised control trial on cocoa farmers in Ghana “]– D. Kos; R. B. W. Lensink

133.[media-downloader media_id=”3610″ texts=”State of Pará, Brazil: an option for the global supply of cocoa”] – F.A.T. Mendes

134.[media-downloader media_id=”2655″ texts=”The impacts of cocoa sustainability initiatives in West Africa “]– Verina Ingram et al. 

135. [media-downloader media_id=”3616″ texts=”Farmers’ knowledge and utilization of CRIG recommended technologies and perceptions of government policies to enhance cocoa productivity”] – M. Asamoah et al. 

136.[media-downloader media_id=”3626″ texts=”A typology of young cocoa farmers in Ghana – attitudes, motivation and aspirations”] – F. Amon-Armah et al. 

137.[media-downloader media_id=”2659″ texts=”Analysis of cocoa beans processing and quality in post-harvest in South East Sulawesi in Indonesia “]– Schaad, N. and Fromm, I

138.[media-downloader media_id=”2660″ texts=”Análisis de factibilidad técnica-económica para la obtención de pulpa congelada de cacao empleando un sistema de colecta semiautomático: caso de estudio “cooperativa agroindustrial y de servicios””] – D. Luján, M. Solís

139. [media-downloader media_id=”2661″ texts=”Instituto de Cultivos Tropicales-ICT, technological advances and effective solutions to increase cocoa productivity and minimize the impact of climate change in Peru”] – Enrique Arévalo-Gardini

140. [media-downloader media_id=”2662″ texts=”Scaling pathways for a climate smart cocoa sector”] – Christian Bunn et al. 

141. [media-downloader media_id=”3608″ texts=”The INCOCOA website and virtual library improving information sharing within the cocoa research community”] – M.J. End and C.J. Turnbull

142.[media-downloader media_id=”2664″ texts=”Development of a decision support framework for the rehabilitation and sustainable intensification of cocoa production on small holder farms”] – Nicholas Cryer et al. 

143.[media-downloader media_id=”2665″ texts=”Towards a living income calculation for cocoa households in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire “]– F. Hütz-Adams et al. 

144.[media-downloader media_id=”2666″ texts=”Cocoanext – the nexus of stakeholders for cocoa research dissemination and sharing”] – A. A. Sankar and P. Umaharan

145. [media-downloader media_id=”3609″ texts=”The importance of cocoa in a diversified farm”] – A. Laven et al. 

146.[media-downloader media_id=”3613″ texts=”Intensification of cocoa in the Peruvian amazon: gender relations and options for deeper engagement by women”] – Trent Blare, Jason Donovan

147.[media-downloader media_id=”2669″ texts=”Turning the chocolate business upside down! case story of a Swiss chocolate company co-owned by Peruvian farmers”] – N. Porchet, C. Nordmann, M.Castillo

148.  [media-downloader media_id=”3624″ texts=”Análisis de la adopción de tecnología de producción de cacao en Nilo y Yacopí (Cundinamarca – Colombia)”] – J. C. Barrientos, W. A. Gómez G

149.[media-downloader media_id=”2671″ texts=”Direct partnership on cocoa processing in Papua island, Indonesia for improving farmers’ access to Japan market”] – Diany Faila Sophia Hartatri and Hendy Firmanto

150.[media-downloader media_id=”3612″ texts=”Determinantes de la productividad en pequeños productores de cacao de las regiones de San Martín, Huánuco y Ucayali (SM/H/U): una aproximación exploratoria al modelo tecnológico de productividad en estas regiones “] – J. Alvarado, J. Iturrios

151.[media-downloader media_id=”3620″ texts=”Design and implementation of a global collaborative framework on cacao genetic resources: incentives, constraints and institutional structures”] – Selim Louafi et al. 

152.[media-downloader media_id=”2674″ texts=”Costos y distribución temporal de la inversión para el mejoramiento genético y desarrollo de una variedad clonal de cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) de alta productividad — Costs and temporary distribution of investment for the genetic improvement and development of a variety clonal cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) high productivity”] – T.J. Casanova et al. 

153.[media-downloader media_id=”3605″ texts=”Constraints to youth involvement in cocoa production in Nigeria”] – O. O. Oduwole et al. 


CONCLUSIONS

The International Symposium on Cocoa Research (ISCR 2017) attracted over 500 participants from 37 countries and institutions. It registered 90 scientific presentations and 100 poster exhibitions covering several topics of relevance to the global cocoa sector. Over 5 days, experts from various scientific fields exchanged views on the progress achieved in cocoa research.

The symposium agreed on a set of key recommendations to accelerate the pace of development in the global cocoa sector, in particular as relevant to cocoa research. Climate change adaptation and mitigation, food safety and Cadmium in particular were identified as major growing concerns for the cocoa sector that needed to be addressed urgently.

The symposium emphasized the need to have more innovative platforms to better share information on cocoa research and to make results of that research easily accessible to all cocoa stakeholders, particularly cocoa farmers who should be the main focus and recipients of the said results. The detailed recommendations can be found via the following link: [media-downloader media_id=”2518″ texts=”Report of the Scientific Committee ISCR 2017″].

The ICCO Secretariat expresses its sincere gratitude to the Government of Peru for hosting the symposium and to Mars Chocolate UK Limited and Cocoa Research (UK) for their generous financial support that has contributed immensely to the success of the symposium. It thanks, in particular, the scientists, government officials, company representatives and other participants for their active contributions.

We all look forward to the next edition of the symposium at a date and place to be announced.

Interactivity rules for the 1,500 attendees at WCC Berlin

ICCO Executive Director Jean-Marc Anga at the openingThe most interactive edition ever of the World Cocoa Conference, the fourth in the ICCO’s series, was held at the Maritim Berlin Hotel in the German capital in late April, attracting about 1,500 attendees from 65 countries.

The Conference, which was generously hosted by the government of the German Federal Republic, and co-organised with the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, was also graced with the participation of dignitaries including ministers from ICCO Member cocoa exporting countries: Côte d’Ivoire (Minister of Trade of Côte d’Ivoire, H.E. Mr. Souleymane Diarrassouba), Cameroon (Minister of Trade H.E. Mr. Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana), Ecuador (Minister of Agriculture H.E. Mr. Rubén Flores Agreda), Nicaragua (Minister of Development, Industry and Commerce H.E. Mr. Orlando Solorzano Delgadillo), the Dominican Republic (Minister of Agriculture H.E. Mr. Angel Estevez Boudierd, and, representing Peruvian Minister of Agriculture H.E. Mr. Gustavo Eduardo Mostajo Ocola, the Ambassador of Peru to Germany, H.E. Mr. Elmer Schialer.

Also on hand to address delegates were Frank Mars, Board Member of Mars, the platinum sponsor of the four-day event, along with senior representatives of a number of important NGOs, civil society organizations and international donor agencies.

At registrationConference delegates were welcomed to Berlin by Senator Dr. Dirk Behrendt, and the official Welcome Address was given by German Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture, H.E. Ms. Julia Klöckner. The opening session of the Conference also heard from youngsters from the German-based anti-child labour lobby group Schokofair.

ICCO Executive Director Dr. Jean-Marc Angagave the keynote presentation of the Conference, offering his candid view of the current situation in the cocoa sector and outlining his vision for achieving the changes required for the Global Cocoa Agenda, agreed at the first WCC in Abidjan in 2012.

Inspirational speaker and author Rick Antonson advised the large audience to consider legacy issues in its discussions about the future of the sector, and use ‘cathedral thinking’ to address the ultimate goals for cocoa.

Master of ceremonies Lucas Simons of NewForesight led the main Conference proceedings, and introduced a number of innovations to the Conference, aimed at increasing audience participation and providing practical and useful thinking from the entire audience of stakeholders on the serious issues being addressed. One of these was to invite the entire audience to discuss the presentations around round discussion tables set up in each of their chosen tracks across four major Conference topic areas in cocoa: Sustainable Production, Sustainable Industry, Sustainable Consumption and Sustainable Management.

He introduced the moderators who would guide the tracks, consisting of ‘deep dives’ into possible solutions for the sector: Simran Sethi, journalist and Fellow of the Institute for Food and Development Policy, who led the Production track; Committee on Sustainability Assessment President Daniele Giovannicci, who took the helmfor the Industry track; Dr. Torben Erbrath, Director of the Association for the German Confectionery Industry, leading the Consumption track, and Lucas Simons himself who led the Management track.

The audience was also invited at many stages to be more involved in the proceedings of the Conference by taking part in extra impact interviews (organized by NGO Solidaridad) with personalities from the sector, by being active in the interactive polling that took place at several points during the plenary sessions and by contributing to the Twitter wall that was actively used throughout the event.

The first afternoon offered a taster of each of the track topics, with panel sessions on topics ranging from achieving living income for farmers and addressing deforestation, through to stakeholder influence on the entire value chain and a new vision from producing countries, industry, civil society and farmers themselves.

The four breakout sessions of the second day of the Conference included a series of short and in-depth presentation ‘bursts’, before the members of the audience were invited to discuss, comment and make proposals on what they had heard. Led by the track moderators, the audience inputs were compiled at the end of the day to feed their ideas into the Berlin Declaration, the document that came out of the Conference aimed at showing a way forward for the sector.

The final day of the Conference addressed the next steps for the sector to take and the way forward, with an opening statement by the Assistant Secretary General of the ACP Secretariat, Viwanou Gnassounou, and including a summing up of the four tracks by the moderators. Other sessions dealt with assessing the progress toward a sustainable world cocoa economy, looked at new products and new potential in the cocoa and chocolate sector, reported on the highlights of the International Symposium on Cocoa Research in Peru last November to show the way science is supporting cocoa farming, and addresses gender issues and the empowerment of women in the sector.

It was then time for the audience to consider the draft of the Berlin Declaration, to which each of them had contributed via the discussions and the ongoing Twitter wall and other social media channels. The statement was then amended to take in many of the comments and suggestions that came in, making its content the most wide-ranging and representative position on the world cocoa sector yet produced by the WCC or the ICCO. You can see the final version of the Berlin Declaration and the compiled comments from the four tracks here.

Two popular side events at the Conference drew large audiences who gave their rapt attention: the second editions of both the Fine Flavour Forum, which immediately preceded the Conference, and the Women in Cocoa and Chocolate event, which took place on one of the Conference evenings.

The Fine Flavour Forum, devised in conjunction with the International Institute of Chocolate and Cacao Tasting and moderated by IICCT Director Martin Christy and Founder Maricel Presilla. The day-long meeting looking at the fine cocoa and chocolate segment of the market, packed in discussions of new responses to issues like standards for evaluating fine cocoa and chocolate, productivity and profit in the sector, the increase in small-scale production and the threat from cadmium legislation. It included reports on the latest developments in the main fine flavour cocoa origins, some discussion segments and even a chocolate tasting.

The Women in Cocoa and Chocolate event, co-organized with NGO Solidaridad and sponsored by Mondelēz International brought together speakers from civil society, industry and farmers themselves, for an evening of interactive discussion, food, drink, music and dance that was much appreciated by all those who attended and underlined not only the role of women in cocoa but also how increasing their inclusion is even more crucial with the challenges that the sector now has to face.

Socially, delegates gathered in the WCC Exhibition, where suppliers to the sector were showing their latest products and services, for the Welcome Reception, to be greeted by Freidrich Wacker of the German Ministry of Food and Agriculture Food and by the ICCO’s Dr. Jean-Marc Anga. The Executive Director also took charge at the Conference Gala Dinner, held in the splendid 18th Century courtyard of the German Historical Museum, and graciously sponsored by Mondelēz International, whose Executive Vice President and President Europe, Hubert Weber, addressed the delegates during the evening. As is the tradition at this event, the ICCO also presented artisanal mementos of the occasion to the German host nation (represented by Hans-Joachim Fuchtel, Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture) and to the three winners of special recognition for their work in the sector. The deserving recipients were Madam Yatta Samah, Chairperson of the Moawoma Rural Women’s Development Association of Sierra Leone, Antonie Fountain, Managing Director of the Netherlands-based NGO group VOICE network, and Dr. José Antonio Martinez Rojas, of the Comisión Nacional del Cacao of the Dominican Republic, a veteran representative of his country to the ICCO.

The main Conference concluded with closing remarks from the host government, delivered by Dr. Maria Flachsbarth, Parliamentary State Secretary to the German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, and was wrapped up by Dr. Anga, who thanked the German government hosts, the organizing partners, the moderators and speakers as well as the many sponsors, donors, exhibitors, and assistants for their collective help in creating the most successful — and interactive — World Cocoa Conference yet.

Close to 200 photos from the Conference are available by clicking here

A video of some of the highlights of the Conference is available by clicking here

 

Main Conference Programme

(Click on highlighted presenter names to download their presentations)

MONDAY 23 APRIL 2018

Day 1: Vision and Challenges

Official Opening of the Conference

9:30 Welcome Address from the City of Berlin
Dr. Dirk Behrendt, Senator for Justice, Consumer Protection and Anti-Discrimination

9:35 Welcome Address
H.E. Julia Klöckner, H.E Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture of Germany

9:55 Schokofair Presentation

10:00 Ministerial Addresses
H.E. Minister of Trade of Côte d’Ivoire, H.E.M. Souleymane Diarrassouba
H.E. Minister of Trade of Cameroon, H.E.M. Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana
H.E. Minister of Agriculture of Ecuador, H.E.M. Rubén Flores Agreda
H.E. Minister of Development, Industry and Commerce of Nicaragua, H.E.M. Orlando Solorzano Delgadillo
H.E. Minister of Agriculture of the Dominican Republic, H.E.M. Angel Estevez Boudierd
H.E. Minister of Agriculture of Peru, H.E.M. Gustavo Eduardo Mostajo Ocola (represented by the Ambassador of Peru to Germany, H.E. Mr. Elmer Schialer)

10:50 Keynote Presentation
Dr Jean-Marc Anga, Executive Director, ICCO

11:10 Cocoa Break
Impact interviews on the couch by Solidaridad (1st Floor Foyer)

11:40 Statement by the Platinum Sponsor
Frank Mars, Member of the Board of Directors, Mars Incorporated

11:55 An Overview of Germany’s Chocolate Industry
Stephan Nießner, Chairman,The Association of the German Confectionery Industry

12:10 Introduction of conference moderator
Lucas Simons, CEO, NewForesight

12:30 Lunch 
Sponsored by Mars

12:45 –13:15
During lunch the Press Conference will take place in the Wien Room

14.00 Out-of-the box perspective on the Global Cocoa Agenda
Rick Antonson, Guest Speaker, KSC – Canada

14:20 Panel discussion: Sustainable Production, Prosperous Farmers and Thriving Communities
Achieving living incomes for farmers against the background of the recent collapse in cocoa prices on the international markets
Moderator: Simran Sethi, Journalist and Fellow, Institute for Food and Development Policy
Panelists:
Jose Antonio Martinez Rojas, Cocoa producer – Dominican Republic
Friedel Hütz-Adams, Researcher, Südwind Institute – Germany
Arjen Boekhold, Chain Director, Tony’s Chocolonely – The Netherlands
Sayina Riman, President, Cocoa Association of Nigeria, CAN – Nigeria
Cathy Pieters, Director Cocoa Life Program, Mondelēz – Switzerland

14:50 Panel discussion: Sustainable Industry
: Addressing deforestation in the cocoa supply chain
Moderator: Daniele Giovannucci, President, Committee on Sustainability Assessment
Panelists:
Etelle Higonnet, Legal and Campaign Director, Mighty Earth – USA
Rick Scobey, President, World Cocoa Foundation – USA
Andrew Bovarnick, Global Head, Green Commodities Programme, UNDP – USA
Abraham Adusei, WCFO – Ghana
Dogui Aboa, Technical Counselor, SODEFOR, Ministry of Forestry – Côte d’Ivoire

15:20 Cocoa Break

15:50 Panel discussion: Sustainable Consumption: How Producers/Consumers Can Influence the Entire Cocoa Value Chain
Moderator: Dr Torben Erbrath, Director, Association of the German Confectionery Industry – BDSI
Panelists:
Andreas Ronken, CEO, Ritter Sport – Germany (Presentation on the Ritter Sport model – from Nicaragua – for improving cocoa and chocolate sales)
Carolina Aguilar, Deputy Regional Director, Quality & Growth Latin America, Lutheran World Relief
Evelyn Bahn, Business & Human Rights, Sustainable Cocoa, Inkota – Germany

16:20 Panel discussion: New vision for a sustainable cocoa sector from across the value chain
Moderator: Lucas Simons, CEO, NewForesight
Panelists:
Group 1 – Producing Countries
Michael Ndoping, CEO, Office National du Cacao et du Café (ONCC) – Cameroon
Joseph Boahen Aidoo, Chief Executive, Ghana Cocoa Board
H.E. Mr. Rubén Flores Agreda, Minister, Ministry of Agriculture – Ecuador
Group 2 – Industry, Development Agency, Civil Society, Farmers
Nicko Debenham, VP Global Cocoa Sustainability, Barry Callebaut
Joost Oorthuizen, Executive Director, IDH – The Netherlands
Antonie Fountain, Managing Director, Voice Network – The Netherlands
Warren Sako, Secretary General, WCFO – The Netherlands

17:30: Overview of the day and information on the following day
Lucas Simons, CEO, NewForesight

17.30: End of main programme, Monday

TUESDAY 24 APRIL 2018

Day 2: Deep dives into viable solutions

Simultaneous breakout sessions

Track 1: Sustainable Production, Prosperous Farmers and Thriving Communities
How can we move to a sustainable business case and a living income for farmers?
Track Moderator: Simran Sethi

9:00 What is the actual situation of cocoa farmers?
Anna Laven, Senior Advisor, KIT – The Netherlands
Esapa Patrick, South West Farmers’ Cooperative (SOWEFCU) – Cameroun
Aminata Bamba, Head of Sustainability, ECOOKIM – Côte d’Ivoire

How important is the farm gate cocoa price for a living income and what can be done to improve it?
Carla Veldhuyzen, Fairtrade
Annemarie Matthess, Head of the Sustainable Smallholder Agri-Business Programme, West- and Central Africa, GIZ – Germany
Eric Ranaivosoa, Secretary, Groupement des Acteurs du Cacao de Madagascar

10:30 Morning Cocoa Break

11:00 How can we increase productivity: what are the trends in mechanization and digitalization in farming (e.g. mobile banking, GPS, drones, internet of things)?
Manfred Borer, Chairman, Koltiva – Indonesia
Hassan Elamri Head of Business Management Crop Protection West and Central Africa, BASF – Morocco
Elise Benhamou, Agronomy & Business Development Cocoa, GBU Africa, Netafim – France

The effects of climate change and deforestation: how can farmers adapt or mitigate them?
Brigitte Laliberté, Scientist, Bioversity – Italy
Petra Kollmannsberger, COO, 12Tree – Germany
Toussaint N’Guessan, Organisation Mondiale des Cultivateurs de Cacao – World Cocoa Producer Organisation –-Côte d’Ivoire
Edit Kiss, Director, Business Development and Operations, Althelia – UK
Jonas Mva Mva, Cocoa Program Director, IDH –-The Netherlands

12:30 Lunch

14:00 How can we attract the youth into cocoa farming (focusing on professionalizing young cocoa farmers, access to credit and land rights)?
Euphrasie Aka, Country Director and Regional Representative for West and Central Africa, International Cocoa Initiative
Frank Okyere, Farmgate Foundation
Jose Valdez Santos, President, Valdez Cacao SFM S.R.L – Dominican Republic
Carina Yuri Picado, Cooperative La Compesina – Nicaragua
Beatrice Moulianitaki, Head of Sustainable Sourcing, The Hershey Company – Switzerland

15:30 Afternoon Cocoa Break

16:00 Human rights in cocoa communities: focus on the gender issue. How can we develop gender equity and more opportunities for women in the cocoa sector?
Helen Van Hoeven, Oxfam America
Viviane Brou N’Goran, Federation of Women Farmers in Cote d’Ivoire
Margreet Groot, Cocoa Life Communications & Budget Manager, Lead Women’s Empowerment – Mondelēz

How can we eliminate the worst forms of child labour in cocoa-producing countries?
Amany Konan, Consultant National en charge de la lutte contre le travail des enfants au Cabinet de la Première Dame, Comité National de Surveillance des actions de lutte contre la traite, l’exploitation et le travail des enfants (CNS) – Côte d’Ivoire
Nick Weatherill, Executive Director, International Cocoa Initiative
Virginie Mahin – Mondelēz

Closing remarks

17:30 End of Track 1 sessions

Track 2: Sustainable Industry 
How can we create an efficient industry chain that more effectively links farmers to markets and ensures profitability for everyone in the whole chain?
Track Moderator: Daniele Giovannucci

9:00 How can we create access to inputs and services? How important is access to finance?
Dirk Lebe, Deputy Program Director & Financial Services Specialist, Swisscontact – Indonesia
Coralie David, Senior Research Analyst, ResponsAbility – France
James Webb, Senior Manager Innovative Finance, IDH – The Netherlands
Justine Maytraud, Investment officer, Solidarité International pour le développement et l’Investissement – France
Solène Prince Agbodjan, Agriculture Technical Advisor, Africa, Oiko Credit – Côte d’Ivoire

How can we create commercially-oriented and professional farmer-based organizations? How can we reach unorganized farmers and avoid the low-hanging fruit syndrome?
Michiel Hendriksz, Executive Director, Farmstrong Foundation – Switzerland
Hugh Johnson, Vice President, WCFO – Jamaica
Judith Steffens, Project Coordinator, PRO-PLANTEURS/GISCO – Germany
Víctor Ganoza, Country Director, TechnoServe Peru – Peru

10:30 Morning Cocoa Break

11:00 How can we mitigate the price risk in cocoa? How can we further develop innovation in addressing price volatility, and what are examples of innovative mechanisms?
Nicolas Mounard, CEO, Farm Africa – UK
David Short, Consultant, Aidenvironment – The Netherlands
Albert Scalla, Senior Vice President, INTL FCStone – USA
Federico Vignati, Chief Executive Environment and Climate Change, CAF – Peru

12:30 Lunch

14:00 Will increased origin processing impact trade and increase profitability in origin countries? What are the opportunities for small-scale cocoa processing?
Francesca Kleemans, Commercial Director, Cocoa, Cargill – The Netherlands
Gerard Stapleton, LMC International – UK
Joseph Forson, Ghana Cocoa Board – Ghana
Joaquin Muñoz, Head of Sustainability, CEMOI – France

Is the ethical cocoa trade a myth or reality?
Dario Soto Abril, CEO, Fairtrade International – Germany
Eric Garnier, Choba Choba – Switzerland
Elizabeth Rizo, Head of the Purchasing Station, Ritter Sport – Nicaragua

15:30 Afternoon Cocoa Break

16:00 How can we create traceability in our supply chains? What are the technological advances and breakthroughs?
André Van den Beld, COCOANECT B.V. – The Netherlands
Taco Terheijden, Director of Cocoa Sustainability, Cargill – The Netherlands

What are the opportunities in diversification and the alternative methods to generate additional income (a business case approach)?
Richard Asare, Lead Scientist, Cocoa, IITA
Dr. Christophe Kouamé, Director, World Agroforestry – Côte d’Ivoire
Hernan Manson, Head Inclusive Agribusiness and Trade, International Trade Center – Switzerland
Edmond Konan, Président Directeur Général, Global Business Group – Côte d’Ivoire

Closing Remarks

17:30 End of Track 2 Sessions

Track 3: Sustainable Consumption
How do we ensure continuous and growing demand for sustainably produced cocoa and cocoa-based products?
Track Moderator: Dr. Torben Erbrath

9:00 What is the global demand and supply balance and what are the emerging new markets?
Dr Edward George, Head of Group Research, Ecobank – UK
Steve Wateridge, Tropical Research – UK
Eric Bergman, Agricultural Commodities Broker/Trader, Jenkins Sugar Group – USA

How will innovative cocoa-based recipes shape future demand?
Martin Christy, Director, International Institute of Chocolate and Cacao Tasting – UK

10:30 Morning Cocoa Break

11:00 How powerful is marketing in influencing demand?
John George, Ingredients analyst, Euromonitor International – UK
Marieke Bokkes, Market Analyst, Innova Market Insights – The Netherlands

What is the effect of consumption promotion schemes in countries of origin?
Fernando Antonio Teixeira Mendes, CEPLAC – Brazil
Gerardo Paez, Empresa el Vergel – Nicaragua

12:30 Lunch

14:00 Certification and its challenges
Jack Steijn, ISO/CEN – The Netherlands
Han de Groot, Executive Director, Rainforest Alliance
Fuzz Kitto, Stop the Traffik – Australia

15:30 Afternoon Cocoa Break

16:00 What is the secret of producing the best chocolate?
Andreas Bertram, Director ZDS – Germany
Warren Hsu, CEO & Executive Chef, FuWan Chocolate Resort – Taiwan

Samantha Aquim, Q Chocolate – Brazil
José Vicente Franceschi, Casa Franceschi – Venezuela
Rex Puentespina, Director, Malagos Chocolate – Philippines

What is the impact of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures on the cocoa supply chain?
Alice Costa, Scientific & Regulatory Affairs Senior Manager, CAOBISCO – Belgium
Juan Pablo Zuñiga, President, ANECACAO – Ecuador
Julia Manetsberger, EU Food Safety Manager, European Cocoa Association – Belgium
Luisa Urbaez, President, Venezuela Cocoa Corporation  – Venezuela

Closing Remarks

17:30 End of Track 3 sessions

Track 4: Sustainable Management
How do we create the right enabling environment to make the whole sector more sustainable?
Track Moderator: Lucas Simons

9:00 What is the role of industry and governments and multistakeholder platforms in facilitating the enabling environment?
Urs Furrer, Director, Chocosuisse – Switzerland
Rick Scobey, President, WCF – USA
Jonas Mva Mva, Cocoa Program Director, IDH – The Netherlands
Leif Pedersen, Senior Commodities Advisor, UNDP Green Commodities Program – Switzerland
Wolf Kropp-Büttner, Chairman, GISCO – Germany
Nanga Coulibaly, Conseil du Café-Cacao, Côte d’Ivoire

Financial service providers in cocoa: What are the latest tools available to assist cocoa farmers and their governments?
Claudia Huber, Independent Expert, Dev-Impact – Switzerland
Jay Daniliuk, Private Sector Advisor, USAID
Mariam Gabala, Cabinet MDG Consulting – Côte d’Ivoire
Jean-Luc Konan, Président Directeur Général, Cofina – Côte d’Ivoire
Yvonne Chileshe, Expert Commodities value Chains – ACP Secretariat
Michael de Groot, Senior investment Manager – Rabobank, Belgium

Morning Cocoa Break

The missing link of extension services: how can we better facilitate the transfer of science to farmers?
Ruud Ludermann, Senior Expert on Capacity Building and Agricultural Extension, University of Wageningen – Centre for Development Innovation
Stephan Brunner, Global Key Relation Manager, Bayer Crop Science – Germany
Leoncio Altamirano, Cooperativa Multisectorial cacaoteros Organicos de Rosita – Nicaragua
Mercy Asamoah, Senior Reach Scientist, CRIG

How do we optimize farmer protection (safety net)?
Suzan Yemidi, International Programme Coordinator IPC (Cocoa), Solidaridad
Vincent Okyere Akomeah, Ghana Cocoa Board
Michael de Groot, Senior investment Manager – Rabobank, Belgium

Lunch

How do we bring about good production management policies and what are their effects in producing countries? 

Richard Asare, Lead Scientist, Cocoa, IITA – Nigeria
Dr. Niek Koning, WUR – The Netherlands
Abdel Aziz El-Marzougui, Afreximbank – Egypt

Could commodity exchanges trading cocoa based in producing countries improve volatility and stabilize cocoa prices?
Prof. Christopher Gilbert, Adjunct Professor, Bologna Institute for Policy Research, John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies – Italy

Afternoon Cocoa Break

How can we improve social conditions and economic development at smallholder level?
Emanuele Biraghi, Private Sector Specialist UNICEF – Côte d’Ivoire
Abraham Adusei, WCFO – Ghana
Victorine Kouaglou, Société Cooperative Koado-Due – Côte d’Ivoire

What is the GCA framework and how do we activate it?
Philippe Fontayne, Vice-Président, Conseil National du cacao – Madagascar
Producing Country Representatives – TBA

How can we get sufficient land under production and improve land titles?
Gisèle Dutheuil, Director, Institut Audace Afrique – Côte d’Ivoire

Closing Remarks

End of Track 4 sessions

World Cocoa Conference Gala Dinner at the German HIstorical Museum

 

WEDNESDAY 25 APRIL 2018

Day 3: Next steps and the way forward
Moderator: Lucas Simons

09:00 Panel discussion: New Vision – The Way Forward
Opening statement by Viwanou Gnassounou, Assistant Secretary General, ACP Secretariat
Panellists, Track moderators:
Simran Sethi
Daniele Giovannucci
Dr Torben Erbrath
Lucas Simons

10:00 Assessing the Progress toward a Sustainable World Cocoa Economy

Key performance Indicators
Will Saab,Senior Consultant, NewForesight

Visual Presentation of the outcome of the 3D installation
Boukje Theeuwes, Solidaridad

10:30 Cocoa Break

11:00 New products, new potential
New Products
Making Chocolate Products Without Fat, Sugar or Sweeteners – A New Chemistry
Gregory Aharonian, President, Chief Scientist, Kukaxoco

Ruby Chocolate: its potential and market share
Bas Smit, Head of Global Marketing, Barry Callebaut

New Potential
Fine or Flavour Cocoa – Highlights from the Forum
Martin Christy, Director, IITCC

12:00 The science in support of cocoa farming 
Highlights from the International Symposium on Cocoa Research
Brigitte Laliberté, Expert on Cocoa Genetic Resources, Bioversity International

12:20 Gender Equality and Women Empowerment 
Highlights from the Women in Cocoa and Chocolate Forum
Caroline Lubbers, Solidaridad
Yaa Amekudzi, Director Cocoa Life, Ghana, Mondelez International

12:40 Reviewing the Berlin Declaration of the World Cocoa Conference 2018
Considering the main document resulting from the Conference, distributed earlier today

13:00 Lunch
Impact interviews on the couch by Solidaridad (1st Floor Foyer)

14:30 The Berlin Declaration: Presentation of the Recommendations of WCC4 and adoption by the Conference

15:00 Closing Remarks
Dr. Jean-Marc Anga, Executive Director, International Cocoa Organization

15:15 Closing Remarks by the Host Government
Dr Maria Flachsbarth, Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development,
Germany

15:30 Closing of the Conference

 

Fine Flavour Forum
Co-organized with the International Institute of Chocolate and Cacao Tasting (IICCT)
SUNDAY 22 APRIL 2018
Moderators: Martin Christy and Maricel Presilla
09:00 Introduction and Opening Remarks 
Dr. Jean-Marc Anga, Executive Director, ICCO
Martin Christy, Director, International Institute of Chocolate and Cacao Tasting (UK)09:10 An overview of the developments since the 2016 Fine and Flavour Forum in origin cocoas and chocolate products
Maricel Presilla, Founder, International Institute of Chocolate and Cacao Tasting (IICCT) & International Chocolate Awards, Gran Cacao Company, FCIA09:30 Standards and tools for evaluating fine cacao and chocolate

Darin Sukha, Research Fellow, Cocoa Research Centre of the University of the West Indies, (Trinidad and Tobago)
Dr. Alexander Rast, University of Southampton (UK)
Martin Christy
Maricel Presilla10.40 Panel: Do certified and ethical products work in conjunction with fine cacao?
How Fine and Flavour cocoa can increase farmer income / Productivity and Profit

Frank Homann, Founder and CEO, Xoco (Honduras/Denmark)
Guido Castagna, Award-winning artisanal bean-to-bar chocolatier, giandujotti maker, author, TV personality (Italy)
Warren Hsu, CEO, Executive Chef and Chocolate Maker, Fu Wan Chocolate Resort (Taiwan)
Mikkel Friis-Holm, Award-winning bean-to-bar chocolate maker, chef (Denmark)
11:10 Cocoa Break11:30 Examining the increase in small-scale production: can cocoa emulate the rise of speciality coffee?

Spencer Hyman, Cocoa Runners (UK)12.00 Assessing the threat from cadmium legislation on fine cocoa origins and on small chocolate makers


Esteban Tinoco, Economist, International Cocoa Organization (Ecuador)
Luis Mendosa (Peru)12:30 Lunch
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS IN SOME OF THE MOST INNOVATIVE FINE AND FLAVOUR ORIGINS:14.00 Nicaragua: H.E. Mr. Orlando Solórzano, Minister of Development, Industry and Commerce14:10 Ecuador: H.E. Mr. Rubén Flores Agreda, Minister of Agriculture14:20 Madagascar: Mr. Ravalomanda Andry Tiana, General Director of Foreign Trade14:30 Peru14:40 New Approaches to Promoting Quality Chocolate: The View of Successful Suppliers to the German Market
Michaela Schupp, Owner, Chocolats-de-luxe.de (Germany)
Iveta Kilianová, Hover Chocolates (Germany)
Ciaran Close, Hover Chocolates (Germany)

Katharina Zeilinger, Belyzium Craft Chocolate (Germany)15:30 Cocoa Break15.50 Roundtable Discussions


16:50 Forum Closes
Winners of the International Chocolate Awards and why they won. Descriptions and tastings.17:15 Forum ends

 

Women in Cocoa and Chocolate (WINCC) Evening

Organized by Solidaridad / Sponsored by Mondelez International

MONDAY 23 APRIL 2018

18.00 Welcome

18.25 Opening, welcome word
Cathy Pieters, Mondelez International

18.30 Introduction of the theme
Boukje Theeuwes, Solidaridad

18.45 Keynote speaker
Andrew Bovarnick, Global Head of the Green Commodities Programme, UNDP

19.00 Inspirational speaker
Yaa Peprah Amekudzi, Director Cocoa Life Ghana, Mondelez International
Marie Jeanne Kombo NZore, UGTCI

19.15 Interactive group exercise and reflections

20.00 Wrap up of the evening
Caroline Lubbers, Solidaridad

20.15 Music, dance and drinks: networking time

21.00 End of the programme

May 2018 Quarterly Bulletin of Cocoa Statistics

Abidjan, 31 May 2018–The International Cocoa Organization today releases its revised forecasts for the current 2017/2018 cocoa year and revised estimates of world production, grindings and stocks of cocoa beans for 2016/2017, as summarized below. The data published in Issue No. 2 – Volume XLIV – Cocoa year 2017/2018 of the Quarterly Bulletin of Cocoa Statistics reflect the most recent information available to the Secretariat as at the beginning of May 2018.

Summary of revised forecasts and estimates

 

Cocoa year
(Oct-Sep)		 2016/2017 2017/2018 Year-on-year change
Revised
estimates		 Previous
Forecasts a/		 Revised
Forecasts
(thousand tonnes) (Per cent)
World production 4 744
 4 638
 4 587
 – 157 – 3.3%
World grindings 4 400
 4 847
 4 531
 + 131 + 3.0%
Surplus/deficit b/ + 297
 + 105
 + 10
End-of-season stocks 1 727
 1 830
 1 737
  + 10 + 0.6%
Stocks/Grindings ratio 39.3% 40.8% 38.3%

Notes:
a/   Estimates published in Quarterly Bulletin of Cocoa Statistics, Vol. XLIV – No. 1 – Cocoa year 2017/2018
b/   Surplus/deficit: Net world crop (gross crop adjusted for loss in weight) minus grindings
Totals may differ due to rounding.

This issue of the Bulletin contains the Secretariat’s revised forecasts for the 2017/2018 cocoa year as well as data for the past four years of production and grindings of cocoa beans, detailed by country. The main features of the global cocoa market are illustrated in colour charts. In addition, the Bulletin includes comments on crop and demand prospects in the leading countries for the current season, and a review of price developments on interna- tional markets for cocoa beans during the January-March quarter of 2018.

Statistical information on trade in cocoa beans, cocoa products and chocolate, by country and by region, published in this edition, covers annual data from 2014/2015 to 2016/2017 and quarterly statistics for the period January-March 2016 to July-September 2017. Details of destination of exports and origin of imports for leading cocoa exporting countries are also provided. Historical statistics on cocoa trade and consumption, by country and by region, for the period 2008/2009 to 2016/2017 are presented for reference.

Copies of the Quarterly Bulletin of Cocoa Statistics, including Microsoft Excel files and Adobe PDF format, [media-downloader media_id=”2514″ texts=”can be ordered by completing and returning this form”] or from the ICCO Secretariat at the address below:

International Cocoa Organization
06 P.O. Box 6891
Abidjan 06
Côte d’Ivoire

Tel:              +225 22 51 49 50/51
Fax:             +225 22 51 49 79
E-mail:         info@icco.org

Berlin Declaration of the Fourth World Cocoa Conference

Berlin, 25 April 2018–Released today, following input from about 1,500 stakeholders who attended the Fourth World Cocoa Conference in Berlin, was the Berlin Declaration, included below.

“Business as usual in the cocoa sector is no longer an option. We have to break the mould.” Dr. Jean-Marc Anga, Executive Director of the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO), in the keynote speech opening the fourth World Cocoa Conference in Berlin, April 2018.

We, the delegates of the fourth World Cocoa Conference, held in Berlin in April of 2018, constituting almost 1,500 participants, from more than 65 countries, representing members of all relevant stakeholder groups, including producing governments, consuming governments, farmers, traders, grinders, processors, manufacturers, research institutions, civil society organisations, trade unions, consumer organisations, and many others.

    1.    Since the first World Cocoa Conference and the drafting of the Global Cocoa Agenda in November 2012, sector-wide efforts have proliferated to improve the lives of farmers, communities and the environment. However, these have not been enough to achieve significant impact at scale.

    2.    Too many cocoa farmers are still living in poverty. Deforestation, child labour, gender inequality, human rights violations and many other challenges are a daily reality in many cocoa regions.

    3.    We affirm that the cocoa sector will not be sustainable if farmers are not able to earn a living income.

    4.    A sustainable cocoa sector is a collective responsibility of all stakeholders, and we should work together to achieve this ambitious goal. Areas should be identified for increased non-competitive collaboration, at local, national and global level, avoiding a proliferation of efforts that lack coordination.

    5.    We recognise the urgency and scale of the challenges facing all of us. Our solutions will need to be equal to the size of the problem.

    6.    While acknowledging the commitments of the cocoa sector to achieve sustainability, it is time to review the means by which these have been measured and enforced, recognising that voluntary compliance has not led to sufficient impact.

    7.    Many of our challenges are not specifically cocoa-based, but are part of broader issues affecting rural communities. As such, holistic approaches, including effective governance, must be envisaged and implemented, where cocoa can operate as a driver for rural development.

    8.    Global price volatility and low farm gate prices have had a strong negative impact on the sector.

    9.    Without farmers, there is no cocoa. All actors should work together to create an enabling environment to professionalise cocoa farming.

    10.    Recognising cocoa farming as a business sector, farmer organization(s) should be stronger, and farmers should be encouraged to self-organise. This should include appropriate policies at national level.

    11.    Acknowledging the role of agricultural commodity development, including the cocoa sector, logging and bush fires, as drivers of deforestation and forest degradation, and recognising the strong contribution the cocoa sector can make in the restoration of forests and resilient landscapes, we commit to work together as a whole cocoa supply chain – in collaboration with the international community – to end deforestation and promote forest protection and restoration. We should improve yields on less land.

    12.    A new vision is needed in order to achieve true sector-wide sustainability.

Recommendations
Sustainable Production
    1.    All stakeholders should develop and implement policies that enable cocoa farmers to make a living income.

    2.    All stakeholders should foster policies and activities to strengthen the position and the rights of women.

    3.    Relevant stakeholders should contribute to creating an enabling environment that improves access to savings, credit, finance, and insurance, also for small-scale farmers.

    4.    Producing governments and sector-wide initiatives should implement and enforce policies and practices that ensure environmental protection, including anti-deforestation and reforestation measures, soil protection, and agroforestry systems.

    5.    Governments should give due consideration to the needs of farmers in international trade, including options for robust international competition laws that promote fair trade for both farmers and consumers.

    6.    Child labour does not have a place in a sustainable cocoa value chain. All sectors should increase efforts, efficiency and cooperation to eradicate child labour and its root causes.

Sustainable Industry
    7.    Supply chain traceability should be recognised as a necessity for a sustainable value chain. A sector wide consensus on traceability should be developed. Efforts must be undertaken to ensure that this does not lead to additional costs and other burdens being transferred to the farmers without sufficient remuneration.

    8.    Sector sustainability efforts should be transparent and publicly accountable in both efforts and impacts, including through appropriate monitoring and evaluation frameworks.

Sustainable Consumption
    9.    Engage the sector in dynamic activities to stimulate processing in origin countries and healthy cocoa consumption in origin countries and emerging cocoa markets.

    10.    Complying with SPS requirements is in the interest of consumers and producers alike. It is essential to ensure that the necessary assistance (technical, financial, or otherwise) is provided to enable producers to comply with these requirements.

Sustainable Management
    11.    Producing country governments to coordinate national and regional cocoa policies, specifically being mindful of the impact this can have on cocoa prices.

    12.    Producing country governments should strengthen National Cocoa Development Plans (NCDPs); including a strengthening of infrastructure, extension services, farm diversification, tenure security, etc, making efforts to ensure a transparent, inclusive and participatory approach in the development and implementation of the NCDPs.

    13.    Producing country governments are called upon to carry out a reliable inventory of cocoa tree stocks.

    14.    All stakeholders are called upon to strengthen human rights due diligence across the supply chain, including through potential regulatory measures by governments.

    15.    Public and private sector are encouraged to stimulate scientific research & development into sustainable production, consumption and innovative processing.

    16.    Governments of producing and consuming nations are called upon to re-evaluate the effectiveness and transparency of their investments in the cocoa sector.

    17.    The entire cocoa sector, including industry, governments of consuming nations, producing nations, international donors, cocoa farmers, and other relevant institutions, are called upon urgently to increase their investments in the improvement of the cocoa sector.

    18.    The time to act is now.

Summaries of the results of discussions on the four major tracks of the Conference:

Track 1 Sustainable Production (moderator Simran Sethi)
How can we move to a sustainable business case and a living income for farmers?

MAIN BARRIERS
•    Lack of information of:
•    producers concerning the price and the market
•    consumers concerning the value distribution along the value chain
•    governments concerning the cocoa producers’ network
•    Lack of education and business skill of the farmers
•    Lack of organisation of the cocoa producers
•    Low access to finance and land for farmers
•    Poor integration of the farmers to the value chain

RELATIONSHIP WITH THE OTHER TRACKS
All the topics are interrelated and need to be maintained to ensure sustainable chain
Track 1 is related to:
•    Mechanization of agriculture and local processing + commitment of industry to pay fixed incomes to farmers
•    Local consumption through the increasing awareness of the value chain for local consumption and sustainable global consumption
•    Management through the redefinition of the relationship with commodity markets

MAIN NEXT STEPS
•    To pay higher farm gate prices
•    To organize and strengthen farmer advocacy groups and restructure cooperatives
•    To secure land tenure and improve the access to credit
•    To promote local consumption / create local markets for cocoa and develop value-added products
•    To support and develop the local processing (government and industry)

INNOVATIVE IDEAS
•    To set up a national / global trust fund for farmers
•    To improve cooperation across other industries (coffee, rubber, palm oil)
•    To shorten supply chains in order to develop direct-to-consumer / direct-to-small makers
•    To develop specific culturally-appropriate solutions (to pricing, gender disparity and child labour)
•    To set up a trust fund for the preservation of diverse genetic material (cocoa research centre / CATIE)

Cocoa Track Key Question: How can we move to a sustainable business case and a living income for farmers?
– By giving the farmers the place they deserve – as core part of the value chain, not simply as most assistance needed player but as decision-makers, as integral and important as the rest
– By ensuring a living income for farmers

Track 2 Sustainable Industry (moderator Daniele Giovannucci) 
How can we create an efficient industry chain that more effectively links farmers to markets and ensures profitability for everyone in the market chain?

Main messages:

1.    Better risk management
a.    Farmers have little understanding of financial or price risk management, there is a need for more financial literacy and active participation via organizations.
b.    Access to risk tools, especially financial ones, must come at the adequate scale for farmers and cooperatives.
c.    Diversification is vital for small farmers and sustainability programmes should include farm diversification packages to ensure continuity and well-being of farm communities.

2.    Professional organizations  – cooperatives can act not only as farmers’ representatives but also as functional social enterprises with a transparent organizational structure to manage sufficient and useful data. This will require dedicated programs to strengthen and build capacity.

3.    Diminishing key barriers for processing in producing countries can stimulate value and cocoa consumption as well as become a precursor to value-added export opportunities. The innovative investment that this requires is limited by policy that creates barriers for entrepreneurs to do business.

4.    Good information is key for the sector to learn faster, to scale up viable approaches, and to operate efficiently.
a.    To be viable, for traceability and decision-making, data has to share a “common language“ and indicators and that can help to reduce the challenge that information is asymmetrically distributed and keeps farmer in a weak position.
b.    Farm data has value and farmers should have value back either as revenue or as distilled knowledge.

5.    Any ethical trade approach is incomplete if it is not led by origin and integrates participatory approaches.

Track 3 Sustainable consumption (moderator Torben Erbrath)
What is stopping us from continuous and growing demand for sustainably produced cocoa and cocoa-based products?

–    Confusion about meaning and liability of levels of certification in consumer countries
–    lack of promotion in origin and a focus on exports of cocoa/chocolate
–    farmers often do not know what happens to cocoa when it leaves the farm
–    consumers do not know what happens to cocoa and how it is produced
–    often no price increase related to the introduction of 100% sustainable cocoa in final products, putting pressure on producers
–    a lot of standards and norms are consumer-driven, putting pressure on farmers
–    costs of production of sustainable cocoa (certification must be affordable)
–    threat of cadmium legislation in the EU
–    market access
–    price level and volatility
–    imbalance of added value towards consuming countries

What is the relationship with other tracks?
–    everything is related

What are possible next steps

•    development of micro-chocolate factories in origin countries
•    improve partnerships, especially in research
•    more uniformity in certification schemes and systems required
•    branding strategy for producing countries (telling the story)
•    pricing strategy among large producing countries
•    better labels
•    new marketing strategies
•    building awareness of about proposed EU legislation (on cadmium)
•    add a “rainforest premium” to support deforestation prevention
•    create funds to protect farmers from price fluctuations

Track 4 Sustainable Management  (moderator Lucas Simons)
How do we create the right enabling environment to make the whole sector more sustainable?

Challenges/root problems
•    Lack of information
•    Price instability
•    Weak producers’ organizations
•    Lack of access to finance
•    Poverty
•    Lack of transparency/ policies

Relationship to other tracks
•    All other tracks, in particular track 1.

Next steps
•    All local platforms mesh – with farmers as equal partners, also in ICCO
•    To have longer and consistent policies. Aligned between countries. Reviewed periodically, work from National Cocoa Plan
•    Make access to finance, and resilient farmers (as business) part of the National Cocoa Plans
•    Capacity building as part of NC Plan.
•    Human productivity: health, education, infrastructure, part of national cocoa plan.
•    Geo-date map all farmers/farms to enable: pensions, supply and demand, access to finance, better support

Innovative ideas
•    ‘Cocoa OPEC’
•    Pension scheme Ghana for all farmers (cocoa)
•    Non-partisan approach – policies and benefits for all
•    Geo date / map every farmer as enabler for many challenges to solve
•    National policies to balance/ coordinate supply / demand

Cocoa Track Key Question: How do we create the right enabling environment to make the whole sector more sustainable?
•    Implement the GCA framework
•    Not casual
•    Accountability / transparency
•    Resources to do it
•    Report and Measure
•    Action plan / Stop talking.

Berlin Declaration of the Fourth World Cocoa Conference

Berlin, 25 April 2018–Released today, following input from about 1,500 stakeholders who attended the Fourth World Cocoa Conference in Berlin, was the Berlin Declaration, included below.

“Business as usual in the cocoa sector is no longer an option. We have to break the mould.” Dr. Jean-Marc Anga, Executive Director of the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO), in the keynote speech opening the fourth World Cocoa Conference in Berlin, April 2018.

We, the delegates of the fourth World Cocoa Conference, held in Berlin in April of 2018, constituting almost 1,500 participants, from more than 65 countries, representing members of all relevant stakeholder groups, including producing governments, consuming governments, farmers, traders, grinders, processors, manufacturers, research institutions, civil society organisations, trade unions, consumer organisations, and many others.

    1.    Since the first World Cocoa Conference and the drafting of the Global Cocoa Agenda in November 2012, sector-wide efforts have proliferated to improve the lives of farmers, communities and the environment. However, these have not been enough to achieve significant impact at scale.

    2.    Too many cocoa farmers are still living in poverty. Deforestation, child labour, gender inequality, human rights violations and many other challenges are a daily reality in many cocoa regions.

    3.    We affirm that the cocoa sector will not be sustainable if farmers are not able to earn a living income.

    4.    A sustainable cocoa sector is a collective responsibility of all stakeholders, and we should work together to achieve this ambitious goal. Areas should be identified for increased non-competitive collaboration, at local, national and global level, avoiding a proliferation of efforts that lack coordination.

    5.    We recognise the urgency and scale of the challenges facing all of us. Our solutions will need to be equal to the size of the problem.

    6.    While acknowledging the commitments of the cocoa sector to achieve sustainability, it is time to review the means by which these have been measured and enforced, recognising that voluntary compliance has not led to sufficient impact.

    7.    Many of our challenges are not specifically cocoa-based, but are part of broader issues affecting rural communities. As such, holistic approaches, including effective governance, must be envisaged and implemented, where cocoa can operate as a driver for rural development.

    8.    Global price volatility and low farm gate prices have had a strong negative impact on the sector.

    9.    Without farmers, there is no cocoa. All actors should work together to create an enabling environment to professionalise cocoa farming.

    10.    Recognising cocoa farming as a business sector, farmer organization(s) should be stronger, and farmers should be encouraged to self-organise. This should include appropriate policies at national level.

    11.    Acknowledging the role of agricultural commodity development, including the cocoa sector, logging and bush fires, as drivers of deforestation and forest degradation, and recognising the strong contribution the cocoa sector can make in the restoration of forests and resilient landscapes, we commit to work together as a whole cocoa supply chain – in collaboration with the international community – to end deforestation and promote forest protection and restoration. We should improve yields on less land.

    12.    A new vision is needed in order to achieve true sector-wide sustainability.

Recommendations
Sustainable Production
    1.    All stakeholders should develop and implement policies that enable cocoa farmers to make a living income.

    2.    All stakeholders should foster policies and activities to strengthen the position and the rights of women.

    3.    Relevant stakeholders should contribute to creating an enabling environment that improves access to savings, credit, finance, and insurance, also for small-scale farmers.

    4.    Producing governments and sector-wide initiatives should implement and enforce policies and practices that ensure environmental protection, including anti-deforestation and reforestation measures, soil protection, and agroforestry systems.

    5.    Governments should give due consideration to the needs of farmers in international trade, including options for robust international competition laws that promote fair trade for both farmers and consumers.

    6.    Child labour does not have a place in a sustainable cocoa value chain. All sectors should increase efforts, efficiency and cooperation to eradicate child labour and its root causes.

Sustainable Industry
    7.    Supply chain traceability should be recognised as a necessity for a sustainable value chain. A sector wide consensus on traceability should be developed. Efforts must be undertaken to ensure that this does not lead to additional costs and other burdens being transferred to the farmers without sufficient remuneration.

    8.    Sector sustainability efforts should be transparent and publicly accountable in both efforts and impacts, including through appropriate monitoring and evaluation frameworks.

Sustainable Consumption
    9.    Engage the sector in dynamic activities to stimulate processing in origin countries and healthy cocoa consumption in origin countries and emerging cocoa markets.

    10.    Complying with SPS requirements is in the interest of consumers and producers alike. It is essential to ensure that the necessary assistance (technical, financial, or otherwise) is provided to enable producers to comply with these requirements.

Sustainable Management
    11.    Producing country governments to coordinate national and regional cocoa policies, specifically being mindful of the impact this can have on cocoa prices.

    12.    Producing country governments should strengthen National Cocoa Development Plans (NCDPs); including a strengthening of infrastructure, extension services, farm diversification, tenure security, etc, making efforts to ensure a transparent, inclusive and participatory approach in the development and implementation of the NCDPs.

    13.    Producing country governments are called upon to carry out a reliable inventory of cocoa tree stocks.

    14.    All stakeholders are called upon to strengthen human rights due diligence across the supply chain, including through potential regulatory measures by governments.

    15.    Public and private sector are encouraged to stimulate scientific research & development into sustainable production, consumption and innovative processing.

    16.    Governments of producing and consuming nations are called upon to re-evaluate the effectiveness and transparency of their investments in the cocoa sector.

    17.    The entire cocoa sector, including industry, governments of consuming nations, producing nations, international donors, cocoa farmers, and other relevant institutions, are called upon urgently to increase their investments in the improvement of the cocoa sector.

    18.    The time to act is now.

Summaries of the results of discussions on the four major tracks of the Conference:

Track 1 Sustainable Production (moderator Simran Sethi)
How can we move to a sustainable business case and a living income for farmers?

MAIN BARRIERS
•    Lack of information of:
•    producers concerning the price and the market
•    consumers concerning the value distribution along the value chain
•    governments concerning the cocoa producers’ network
•    Lack of education and business skill of the farmers
•    Lack of organisation of the cocoa producers
•    Low access to finance and land for farmers
•    Poor integration of the farmers to the value chain

RELATIONSHIP WITH THE OTHER TRACKS
All the topics are interrelated and need to be maintained to ensure sustainable chain
Track 1 is related to:
•    Mechanization of agriculture and local processing + commitment of industry to pay fixed incomes to farmers
•    Local consumption through the increasing awareness of the value chain for local consumption and sustainable global consumption
•    Management through the redefinition of the relationship with commodity markets

MAIN NEXT STEPS
•    To pay higher farm gate prices
•    To organize and strengthen farmer advocacy groups and restructure cooperatives
•    To secure land tenure and improve the access to credit
•    To promote local consumption / create local markets for cocoa and develop value-added products
•    To support and develop the local processing (government and industry)

INNOVATIVE IDEAS
•    To set up a national / global trust fund for farmers
•    To improve cooperation across other industries (coffee, rubber, palm oil)
•    To shorten supply chains in order to develop direct-to-consumer / direct-to-small makers
•    To develop specific culturally-appropriate solutions (to pricing, gender disparity and child labour)
•    To set up a trust fund for the preservation of diverse genetic material (cocoa research centre / CATIE)

Cocoa Track Key Question: How can we move to a sustainable business case and a living income for farmers?
– By giving the farmers the place they deserve – as core part of the value chain, not simply as most assistance needed player but as decision-makers, as integral and important as the rest
– By ensuring a living income for farmers

Track 2 Sustainable Industry (moderator Daniele Giovannucci)
How can we create an efficient industry chain that more effectively links farmers to markets and ensures profitability for everyone in the market chain?

Main messages:

1.    Better risk management
a.    Farmers have little understanding of financial or price risk management, there is a need for more financial literacy and active participation via organizations.
b.    Access to risk tools, especially financial ones, must come at the adequate scale for farmers and cooperatives.
c.    Diversification is vital for small farmers and sustainability programmes should include farm diversification packages to ensure continuity and well-being of farm communities.

2.    Professional organizations  – cooperatives can act not only as farmers’ representatives but also as functional social enterprises with a transparent organizational structure to manage sufficient and useful data. This will require dedicated programs to strengthen and build capacity.

3.    Diminishing key barriers for processing in producing countries can stimulate value and cocoa consumption as well as become a precursor to value-added export opportunities. The innovative investment that this requires is limited by policy that creates barriers for entrepreneurs to do business.

4.    Good information is key for the sector to learn faster, to scale up viable approaches, and to operate efficiently.
a.    To be viable, for traceability and decision-making, data has to share a “common language“ and indicators and that can help to reduce the challenge that information is asymmetrically distributed and keeps farmer in a weak position.
b.    Farm data has value and farmers should have value back either as revenue or as distilled knowledge.

5.    Any ethical trade approach is incomplete if it is not led by origin and integrates participatory approaches.

Track 3 Sustainable consumption (moderator Torben Erbrath)
What is stopping us from continuous and growing demand for sustainably produced cocoa and cocoa-based products?

–    Confusion about meaning and liability of levels of certification in consumer countries
–    lack of promotion in origin and a focus on exports of cocoa/chocolate
–    farmers often do not know what happens to cocoa when it leaves the farm
–    consumers do not know what happens to cocoa and how it is produced
–    often no price increase related to the introduction of 100% sustainable cocoa in final products, putting pressure on producers
–    a lot of standards and norms are consumer-driven, putting pressure on farmers
–    costs of production of sustainable cocoa (certification must be affordable)
–    threat of cadmium legislation in the EU
–    market access
–    price level and volatility
–    imbalance of added value towards consuming countries

What is the relationship with other tracks?
–    everything is related

What are possible next steps

•    development of micro-chocolate factories in origin countries
•    improve partnerships, especially in research
•    more uniformity in certification schemes and systems required
•    branding strategy for producing countries (telling the story)
•    pricing strategy among large producing countries
•    better labels
•    new marketing strategies
•    building awareness of about proposed EU legislation (on cadmium)
•    add a “rainforest premium” to support deforestation prevention
•    create funds to protect farmers from price fluctuations

Track 4 Sustainable Management  (moderator Lucas Simons)
How do we create the right enabling environment to make the whole sector more sustainable?

Challenges/root problems
•    Lack of information
•    Price instability
•    Weak producers’ organizations
•    Lack of access to finance
•    Poverty
•    Lack of transparency/ policies

Relationship to other tracks
•    All other tracks, in particular track 1.

Next steps
•    All local platforms mesh – with farmers as equal partners, also in ICCO
•    To have longer and consistent policies. Aligned between countries. Reviewed periodically, work from National Cocoa Plan
•    Make access to finance, and resilient farmers (as business) part of the National Cocoa Plans
•    Capacity building as part of NC Plan.
•    Human productivity: health, education, infrastructure, part of national cocoa plan.
•    Geo-date map all farmers/farms to enable: pensions, supply and demand, access to finance, better support

Innovative ideas
•    ‘Cocoa OPEC’
•    Pension scheme Ghana for all farmers (cocoa)
•    Non-partisan approach – policies and benefits for all
•    Geo date / map every farmer as enabler for many challenges to solve
•    National policies to balance/ coordinate supply / demand

Cocoa Track Key Question: How do we create the right enabling environment to make the whole sector more sustainable?
•    Implement the GCA framework
•    Not casual
•    Accountability / transparency
•    Resources to do it
•    Report and Measure
•    Action plan / Stop talking.

International Cocoa Council and subsidiary bodies, 26 – 28 April 2018, Berlin, Germany

The International Cocoa Council and subsidiary bodies, including the Consultative Board on the World Cocoa Economy, as well as the Economics and Administration and Finance Committees, will meet at the Maritim Berlin Hotel, Berlin, Germany, 26 – 28 April 2018, immediately following the Fourth World Cocoa Conference, to be held at the same location.

Provisional Timetable of Meetings, 26 – 28 April 2018, Berlin, Germany

ED(MEM) 1052-Rev.2
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Arrangements for the April 2018 meetings

ED(MEM) 1054
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International Cocoa Council: Draft Agenda

ICC-97-1-Rev.3
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Administration and Finance Committee: Draft Agenda

AF-13-1-Rev.1
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Economics Committee: Draft Agenda

EC-11-1-Rev.1
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Consultative Board on the World Cocoa Economy: Draft Agenda

CB-36-1
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