Cote d'Ivoire hosts global cocoa conference

Cote d'Ivoire, the top cocoa producer in the world, is hosting its first world conference on the "strategic challenges" being faced by the industry. "We are ready for the meeting and majority of the delegates arrived today although some started arriving last week," Cote d'Ivoire's Agriculture Minister Coulibaly Sangafowa said on Sunday on the eve of the meeting. The meeting set to open on Monday is to be attended by more than 1,000 participants, mostly representatives from cocoa producing and consuming countries, senior officials of the cocoa and chocolate producing establishments, researchers and organizations of cocoa farmers. Analysts say cocoa farming has entered a "structural deficit" period which is characterized by low productivity and quality, the ageing of farmers and orchards, diseases, reduced utilization of the pesticides and competition from other basic crops like hevea and palm oil. The four-day Abidjan meeting will discuss the need for adoption of "a global agenda" to have a sustainable cocoa industry and "a strategic action plan" with specific measures at the regional and national level, as well as the creation of a fund to finance the "cocoa plan."