International Cocoa Conference 2013: Youth Engaged Towards Sustainable World Cocoa Economy By Jude Fuhnwi The youth are encouraged to be part of the complete cocoa supply chain to help decide the agenda for the future of the cocoa industry by contributing to improve productivity through boosting yields, better quality cocoa and increasing sustainable development, experts have said. This was during the second edition of the international cocoa conference in Monatele, Lekie Division of the Centre Region, on Thursday, November 28, organized by the Cocoa and Coffee Inter-professional Council, CICC, to launch the 2013 cocoa exhibition season, dubbed “Festi Cacao”. With global cocoa demand growing at a mouth watery 2.2 per cent every year, experts and the Cameroon government have found enough reason to justify the current campaign to staple cocoa culture in the youth to guarantee a brighter cocoa future in the country. Holding under the theme “Youth, the takeover” the Monatele conference placed a high premium on engaging youth in the cocoa production chain and was attended by experts and cocoa producers from Nigeria, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon. “It is not to raise the question of youth unemployment, but to engage practical and concrete action for a cocoa future in Cameroon” said Cameroon’s Trade Minister, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana, who chaired and moderated the conference. Cameroon’s present annual cocoa production stands at 230thousand tons this year, still falling short of the 600thousand tons the country targets to produce in 2020. Hence, full participation of the youth will improve production across the cocoa value chain. During the conference, experts examined key global trade dynamics and participants listened to presentations from key cocoa producers, users and traders intended to help them develop their business plans. “I’ve learnt a lot from the presentations and will ensure my business plan contributes to securing a sustainable future for the cocoa industry” said a young cocoa producer who participated in the international conference. According to the Executive Director of the International Cocoa Organization, ICO, Dr Jean Marc Anga, there is need to implement a dynamic strategy to enhance and increase production, underlining that revenue from cocoa production will increase in the future. “The future of cocoa will be guaranteed by modern production methods because we still cultivate it the same way our parents and grandparents did” said Anga. He added that the progressive transfer of corruption was observed in previous years by the ICO and encouraged producers to shun such practices and pledged his organization’s readiness to accompany them for a brighter cocoa production future. The ICO boss lauded Cameroon for reinforcing capacity building of producers. On her part, the president of the cocoa manufacturing company, TELCAR Cocoa Ltd, Kate Fotso, said, conscious of the demands of cocoa especially in the world market, her company trained 1500 producers in 2012, 500 of whom were certified. And this year, 7000 others are being trained to eventually group themselves into cooperatives and grab Funding opportunities, which are presently enjoyed by Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana, where producers are more organized. “If countries like India and China increase their demand just a bit, there’ll be no cocoa again in the world market” said Kate. The production of cocoa in the world is valued at FCFA 4500billion (US$ 9billion). Africa alone produced 71 per cent of the world’s cocoa in 2012, ranking the continent highest exporter of the crop in the world market. Latin America came second with 16 per cent while Asia and Oceania contributed 13 per cent of cocoa in the world market. Cote d’Ivoire is the world’s main cocoa producer, closely followed by Ghana and Indonesia in the second and third positions respectively. Nigeria is the fourth largest producer of cocoa in the world, while Cameroon is ranked fifth on the chart. Cocoa production has hit 230thousand tons in Cameroon this year, indicating a progressive increase in production, unlike in Malaysia where cocoa production has drastically dropped from 300thousand tons per year to a circa 7thousand tons. According to the ICO, the European Union is the highest buyer of cocoa, consuming 37per cent of cocoa in the world market. North America is runner up with 24 per cent of the world’s cocoa consumed in the area. Meanwhile, Africa consumes only 4 per cent. Switzerland alone consumes 5.7 per cent of cocoa produced in the world. According to Cameroon’s Trade Minister, the demand in the world market is perky and Cameroon produces the best cocoa in the world. The country therefore, targets the production of 600thousand tons in 2020 with the hope of transforming 300thousand tons locally. And this, he said could only be achieved if the youth are fully engaged in the cocoa production chain.
Posted on: Sat, 30 Nov 2013 13:27:48 +0000
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