Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, 31 July 2023. The Executive Director of the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) is pleased  to announce that the ICCO Members will select the country hosting the 3rd edition of the International Symposium on Cocoa Research (ISCR), scheduled for the second semester of 2025, during the 108th regular session of the International Cocoa Council in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, in October 2023.

The International Symposium on Cocoa Research (ISCR), organised by the ICCO, is a 4-day event during which cocoa scientists from different academic disciplines exchange their latest findings and agree on priorities for collective actions. A Scientific Committee, to be established by the ICCO, will be in charge of the programme and the selection of abstracts to be presented at the Symposium under the guidance of the ICCO Secretariat. The 1st edition of the ISCR was held in Lima, Peru in November 2017; and the 2nd edition was held in Montpellier, France in December 2022.

To ensure equal representation as ISCR hosts between exporting and importing ICCO Members and within each group of Members, the Secretariat is inviting exporting ICCO Members from Africa or Asia to send to the Secretariat their official bids to host this event by 01 September 2023, close of business.

For further information or enquiries about bidding for the 3rd International Symposium on Cocoa Research, please contact Mr José Jiménez Puerta, Economist, International Cocoa Organization; tel: +225 27 22 51 49 60; email: jose.jimenez-puerta@icco.org

Abidjan, 17 July 2023 – The International Cocoa Organization releases the Cocoa Market Report for June 2023. The current report highlights the following insights:

• In Europe, cocoa beans originating from Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire traded with the highest premium followed by Ecuadorian and Nigerian cocoa beans; while in the United States African origins received a higher premium compared to Ecuador.
• In the course of June 2023, the global cocoa market was bullish and prices of the front-month contract were substantially higher year-on-year, generally above the symbolic threshold of US$3,000 per tonne, on both the London and New York markets.
• The market was mostly constrained by the uncertainties surrounding the supply side due in part to the adverse meteorological conditions that prevailed in Côte d’Ivoire.

You can download the complete report by clicking here.

Abidjan, 20 June 2023 – The International Cocoa Organization releases the Cocoa Market Report for May 2023. The current report highlights the following insights:

• Cocoa futures prices are currently hovering above US$3,000 and £2,300 per tonne in New York and London respectively.
• Recent heavy downpours have been reported in major producing countries and have led to heightened fears of disease outbreaks as well as over the quality of the mid-crop cocoa beans.
• The growing concern over an El Niño climatic phenomenon developing later in the year has been making the headlines.
• though fertilizer prices are progressively declining, historically they are still significantly high and this could deter farmers from its usage, which could in turn affect cocoa production.

You can download the complete report by clicking here.