Archive for category: Latest News

In a landmark event for the Organization, around 500 people gathered on 25 April for the formal inauguration of the ICCO’s new headquarters in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

Ivorian Vice President H.E. Mr. Daniel Kablan Duncan was present for the ceremony, along with H.E. Mr. Mamadou Sangafowa Coulibaly, Minister of Agriculture, H.E. Mr. Souleymane Diarrassouba, Minister of Trade and Mr. Robert Beugré Mambé, Governor of the Abidjan Autonomous District.

They were joined by ICCO Council Chairman 2016-17 H.E. Mr. Luis Valverde, ICCO Executive Director Dr. Jean-Marc Anga and representatives from embassies, intergovernmental organisations and cocoa sector stakeholders.

The ceremony took place during the 95th regular session of the International Cocoa Council and subsidiary bodies.

The relocation of the ICCO to Abidjan should focus even more the Organization’s attention towards the requirements of producers.

“Côte d’Ivoire is now convinced that the presence of ICCO in Abidjan will provide opportunities to better understand the realities of the sector and to better appreciate the expectations of producers,” Vice President Kablan Duncan said.

“Through our establishment in a producing country,” Dr. Anga said, “we want to offer better access to information on the world of cocoa and to identify the existing opportunities that producing countries could benefit from. The goal is to improve the transparency of the cocoa market by providing member countries with cocoa studies, analyses and statistics, as well as forecasts on world supply and demand.”

The move to Côte d’Ivoire’s commercial capital after 44 years being headquartered in London, comes after a decision by the Council in 2015, following an invitation by the Ivorian government. The government provided and completely refurbished a three-storey building in the city’s Deux Plateaux area, which now houses the Organization’s 25 staff members.

Pictured–Top left: ICCO Executive Director Dr. Jean-Marc Anga (l) with Ivorian Vice President H.E. Mr. Daniel Kablan Duncan; Above right: The Vice President presents the keys to the building to ICCO Council Chairman H.E. Mr. Luis Valverde; Above left: the commemorative plaque marking the building’s inauguration as ICCO headquarters

The International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) is organizing the International Symposium on Cocoa Research (ISCR 2017) to take place in Lima, Peru, 13 – 17 November 2017, in conjunction with the Government of Peru.

With the theme Promoting Advances in Research to Enhance the Profitability of Cocoa Farming, the International Symposium aims to review recent advances in technology and innovations, share information and agree on common strategies with the goal of accelerating the development of the world cocoa sector.

The Symposium is expected to attract scientists, researchers and policy makers, as well as representatives from the trade and industry, development agencies and civil society, from all over the world.

Peru, with its rich heritage of growing fine and flavour cocoa, as well as having one of the world’s highest growth rates in cocoa production, is an ideal place to hold the Symposium.

The Symposium aims to provide a platform for the cocoa community and scientists involved in cocoa research to brainstorm on the latest findings, foster greater collaboration in this area, and agree on priorities for collective action.

Included among the thematic areas to be covered by the papers at the Symposium, will be cocoa genetics and breeding; cocoa agronomy, agroforestry and physiology; cocoa pests and diseases; environmental issues in the cocoa sector; cocoa quality, flavour, chocolate manufacturing, consumption and food safety; cocoa marketing and socio-economic analysis; and adoption of technologies and efficient utilization of results from cocoa research.

Researchers on cocoa-related topics from the public and private sectors are invited to submit abstracts, beginning on 1 May, via the ISCR website.

Abidjan, 20 March 2017 — The International Cocoa Organization (ICCO), established under the aegis of the United Nations and located in London, United Kingdom since 1973, is relocating to Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, the leading producer of beans with more than a third of the world’s supply.

After 44 years in the United Kingdom, a consumer country, the time was right for the Organization to move closer to the realities of cocoa producers in order to provide them with expertise in analyzing and solving the challenges facing them.

The ICCO inaugurates its headquarters (pictured above with ICCO Secretariat staff) in Abidjan on 25 April 2017. This inauguration coincides with the week-long meetings of the International Cocoa Council and its subsidiary bodies from 24 to 28 April 2017.

The ICCO has 51 member states, 21 from exporting countries and 30 from importing countries, as well as representatives of the private and public sectors. Its core mandate is to regulate and foster the operations of the world cocoa sector, in compliance with the successive international agreements signed by the member states. (Pictured: ICCO Chairman, Ecuador’s Vice Minister of Agriculture and Livestock, H.E. Mr. Luis Valverde, is welcomed to the Abidjan headquarters by Executive Director Dr. Jean-Marc Anga). 

The Organization, through projects and capacity building programs that engage the various stakeholders in the value chain, aims to achieve a sustainable cocoa economy that encompasses, social, economic and environmental aspects.

The ICCO’s areas of expertise, among others, include economic studies of the world cocoa sector as well as the collection, analysis and dissemination of statistical data through:

– The Monthly Review of the cocoa market;
– The quarterly statistical bulletin (QBCS), reputed for its relevance and impartiality;
– The World Cocoa Directory, the only reliable reference publication of its kind;
– The organization of World Cocoa Conferences (WCC);
– The organization of seminars and training workshops for stakeholders in the world cocoa chain.

The relocation to Côte d’Ivoire, a producing country, marks a decisive step in the life of ICCO. This is an opportunity to consolidate the achievements and operate from Abidjan with the highest level of expertise crucial in this global organization, in order to adequately meet the expectations of all involved, especially the small producers.

Is market concentration among large cocoa firms responsible for the widespread poverty among cocoa farmers? Probably not, according to a new report just published by SEO Amsterdam Economics (www.seo.nl/cocoa).

While market concentration in the sector has increased, particularly among cocoa processors, the report does not find evidence that this concentration is excessive, or that market power is being abused to keep prices artificially low.

Instead, they argue that there are two other key reasons why most cocoa farmers live in extreme poverty. The first is the fact that the productivity of cocoa farmers is very low, particularly in West Africa. The second is that there are many cocoa farmers without realistic alternative income options. As a result, these farmers continue to supply cocoa even at very low prices.

Training programmes aimed at raising productivity can help individual cocoa farmers produce more cocoa and thereby earn a better income. However, the SEO Amsterdam Economics report argues that this cannot be a sustainable solution for all farmers, because if the supply of cocoa rises faster than demand, this will lower the cocoa price even further.

The best way to get farmers out of poverty is through a ‘dual transition’ whereby some farmers invest in sustainably raising their cocoa productivity, while many other cocoa farmers will develop additional or alternative sources of income. Such a transition requires significant improvements in farmers’ access to information, training, infrastructure, and finance. This will make them less dependent on cocoa and will improve their bargaining position.

The report does not find evidence that a regulated price mechanism in producing countries leads to higher incomes for cocoa farmers than a liberalised price system. One key reason why the average farm-gate price is lower in regulated countries is that national cocoa boards take a high percentage out of cocoa export revenues, in some cases more than 50 percent. While part of these cocoa taxes are reinvested in the sector and in general public goods, this has not yet resulted in significantly higher productivity for cocoa farmers in these countries. One of the problems here appears to be the lack of transparency and efficiency of the allocated public reinvestments (e.g. in input distribution).

In countries with liberalised cocoa sectors (particularly Cameroon and Nigeria), there is some scope to raise farm-gate prices through increasing cocoa farmers’ bargaining power, including through stronger farmer organizations, as well as through increasing opportunities for earning alternative income options. As the case of Indonesia illustrates, having more realistic alternatives means that farmers can opt out of cocoa, which likely is one of the reasons why cocoa prices in Indonesia are higher (another reason is that the Indonesian tax system stimulates local cocoa processing).

In countries with regulated cocoa sectors (Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire), the main way to raise cocoa prices and yields is through improving the transparency, efficiency and effectiveness of the regulated system. One advantage of the regulated price system is that this provides some protection to cocoa farmers. Nevertheless, there is anecdotal evidence that farmers may not always receive the regulated price, and the regulated price is substantially lower than in liberalised countries. The report concludes, therefore, that regulated countries should increase transparency about the way regulated prices and cocoa taxes are determined, and about the way these cocoa tax revenues are spent. Finally, there might be scope to improve the quality of cocoa beans, and therefore potentially the price paid for these beans, through more effective public investments and incentives to produce higher quality cocoa.

Click here to access the full report, Market Concentration and Price Formation in the Global Cocoa Value Chain