Abidjan, Sept 22 - World No.1 cocoa grower Ivory Coast has disbanded its Coffee and Cocoa Bourse (BCC) marketing body and established a committee to manage the sector, pending broader reform, the government said on Monday.
The management committee will start work on Tuesday, a government spokesman told Ivorian national television.
Earlier this month, the government said it would replace all administrative bodies in its key cocoa sector as it conducted a wide-ranging overhaul of an industry that has become blighted with strikes and allegations of corruption.
Cocoa is a crucial part of the West African country's economy, representing 20 percent of its gross domestic product, and has become a hot issue in an election year as prices hover close to 28-year highs on world markets.
Ivorian President Laurent Gbabgo, who is expected to run for another term, earlier this year launched an investigation into misuse of money at the BCC, and said there will be jail sentences for those found guilty.
The management committee replacing the BCC will administer the cocoa industry, including registration of cocoa for export, for an initial period of seven months, which is renewable, the government said on Monday.
"LONG LIVE CAISTAB"
Several positions on the committee will be filled by former directors of Caistab, the state-run body which controlled the ccoa sector until it was liberalised with the blessing of the World Bank in 2000.
Exporters welcomed the move as a step towards stability.
"It's a good decision, the people who will be running it know the sector well, so logically we should not have problems getting the season underway despite the management and leadership problems we have had until now," said an executive with an international exporting company in Abidjan.
Registration of cocoa for export has been disrupted by a strike over unpaid salaries at the BCC, and, with less than two weeks before the start of the new cocoa season, exporters have expressed concerns they would face difficulties with shipments.
"Caistab is dead, long live Caistab," said the director of another exporting firm. "I'll wait and see how the new team will manage the new season ... but as they used to work at Caistab, we shouldn't have a problem."
Anti-corruption campaigners Global Witness said exporters also had work to do to eliminate graft from the sector.
"The Ivorian government's plan ... will not ensure transparency as long as cocoa exporters fail to publish what they pay the government and its institutions," it said in a statement.