Ivorians eye top cocoa spot
Source: Agencies |
October 3, 2010, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
IVORY Coast opened a cocoa processing factory on Friday that will push its processing capacity to the largest in the world, an official said.
The West African country is already the world's largest cocoa bean grower and exporter. Bohoun Bouabre, minister of planning and development, said on Friday the new plant is part of a strategy to diversify the economy and move away from exporting only raw unprocessed resources.
The factory would make Ivory Coast less vulnerable to fluctuations in the commodities markets and will provide much-needed skilled jobs for the ranks of the unemployed.
"It's our own industrial revolution," Bouabre said at the inaugural ceremony of the ChocoIvoire factory in the western port city of San Pedro. "With this factory, more than half our exports will be processed cocoa and not raw beans."
According to the International Cocoa Association, the Netherlands is the world's largest cocoa processor, each year turning out 430,000 tons of cocoa liquor, which is used by confectioners to make chocolate. But once the San Pedro factory is up and running, estimates put Ivory Coast's production at over 440,000 tons annually.
"We can't be the world's biggest producer of cocoa beans for decades while allowing others to process our crops," Bouabre said. "We have the expertise now, there's no reason we can't process our own cocoa."
President Laurent Gbagbo laid the ChocoIvoire factory's first stone two years ago, and set the goal of exporting more cocoa liquor than raw beans by 2010. However, only 34 percent of last year's cocoa exports were refined products, said Desire Dallo, the head of San Pedro's Port Authority.
This year's cocoa harvest was weak, said Gilbert N'Guessan Anoh, president of Ivory Coast's Coffee and Cocoa Management Council. Aging cocoa trees and the outbreak of swollen shoot and black root disease have reduced the council's 2010 crop estimations by 100,000 tons, or more than 10 percent.
The West African country is already the world's largest cocoa bean grower and exporter. Bohoun Bouabre, minister of planning and development, said on Friday the new plant is part of a strategy to diversify the economy and move away from exporting only raw unprocessed resources.
The factory would make Ivory Coast less vulnerable to fluctuations in the commodities markets and will provide much-needed skilled jobs for the ranks of the unemployed.
"It's our own industrial revolution," Bouabre said at the inaugural ceremony of the ChocoIvoire factory in the western port city of San Pedro. "With this factory, more than half our exports will be processed cocoa and not raw beans."
According to the International Cocoa Association, the Netherlands is the world's largest cocoa processor, each year turning out 430,000 tons of cocoa liquor, which is used by confectioners to make chocolate. But once the San Pedro factory is up and running, estimates put Ivory Coast's production at over 440,000 tons annually.
"We can't be the world's biggest producer of cocoa beans for decades while allowing others to process our crops," Bouabre said. "We have the expertise now, there's no reason we can't process our own cocoa."
President Laurent Gbagbo laid the ChocoIvoire factory's first stone two years ago, and set the goal of exporting more cocoa liquor than raw beans by 2010. However, only 34 percent of last year's cocoa exports were refined products, said Desire Dallo, the head of San Pedro's Port Authority.
This year's cocoa harvest was weak, said Gilbert N'Guessan Anoh, president of Ivory Coast's Coffee and Cocoa Management Council. Aging cocoa trees and the outbreak of swollen shoot and black root disease have reduced the council's 2010 crop estimations by 100,000 tons, or more than 10 percent.
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