Cocoa industry targets consumption as next agenda

Following a breakthrough in setting a floor price for cocoa at US$ 2,600 per tonne, for the next main crop season, all stakeholders are set to meeting to engage on how to increase global consumption of cocoa products, which has been somewhat low, especially for chocolate.

This agenda is expected to be part of the discussions stakeholders will be engaged in during the technical committee meeting to be constituted in Abidjan, Cote D’ lvoire on July 3, 2019.

This was made known by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of COCOBOD, Joseph Boahene Aidoo, after a two-day meeting held in Accra with stakeholders in the cocoa value chain.

The upcoming technical committee meeting will also focus on planning a road map for the implementation of the agreed floor price regime.

Reacting to a question of imminent over production, emanating from the new floor price regime, the CEO said, the focus should not only be placed on production without same on consumption.

He explained that, “if production goes up, consumption should also go up to induce grinding. But if production goes up and consumption remains the same or reduces, then obviously there is going to be a problem.”

“The consumption side of the equation is currently not being tackled, and that is what the technical committee is going to focus on as well,” he stated.

In the consumption market, the global consumption value of Cocoa and Chocolate increased at a 5.7 percent average growth rate from 2012-2017.

In Africa consumption is currently low at just four percent of global consumption.

Ghana’s per capita consumption is at 0.5 kg, compared with 8 kg and 100 kg in Europe and China, respectively.

North America is the main consumption region due to the bigger demand for downstream applications. North America accounted for 34.21 percent of the global consumption volume in total in 2016.

As at yesterday, June 12, 2019, according to the International Cocoa Organisation cocoa price stood at US$ 2,471.06.

The agreed minimum price is expected to be enough to keep the cocoa farmers in operation.

The two countries further declared that their forward sale of cocoa beans in the 2020/2021 crop season will be put on hold awaiting the implementation of the new price regime.