San Pedro, Oct 17 - Ivory Coast is encouraging cocoa processors to expand capacity and hopes to overtake leading grinders like the Netherlands to become the world's top grinder by 2010, industry officials said this week.
Ivory Coast is the top cocoa grower, producing 1.2-1.4 million tonnes of beans a year, or 37 percent of world supply, but processed just 360,000 tonnes of that in the 2007-08 season according to International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO) data.
"Our aim is to process at least half our annual bean production here in the coming years," cocoa administrator Marie-Louise Acquah said on Thursday during a visit to a factory being built at San Pedro port by a unit of the country's biggest domestic exporter, SAF CACAO.
The town's cocoa processing capacity is expected to increase five-fold to about 250,000 tonnes by 2010, from 49,000 last year, as processing companies open new plants or increase capacity at their existing installations.
With the other port, Abidjan, that should bring national capacity to an estimated 544,000 tonnes by 2010, Acquah said.
"I think with what San Pedro is doing, Ivory Coast will be the world's biggest cocoa grinder in two or three years time."
The Netherlands, the world's top cocoa processor, was projected to grind 460,000 tonnes of beans in 2007/08, followed by Germany with 405,000 tonnes and the United States with 395,000, according to ICCO data.
Acquah is second vice-president of a management committee set up to oversee the industry after leaders of industry bodies were arrested in a corruption investigation that has shaken the industry in the past few months.
TAX BREAKS
Ivory Coast planned to introduce tax advantages to encourage more processing operations, particularly by its own citizens.
Most existing grinding operations are operated by foreign companies like U.S. agribusiness giant Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and SACO, the local branch of Swiss chocolate maker Barry Callebaut AG.
SACO is doubling its grinding capacity in San Pedro to 60,000 tonnes, and also has a 70,000-tonne/year processing plant in Ivory Coast's other port and commercial capital, Abidjan.
Ghana, Ivory Coast's eastern neighbour and the second biggest cocoa grower with almost a fifth of world production, is also ramping up its grinding operations, hoping to extract maximum value from the industry rather than exporting beans raw.
U.S. agribusiness giant Cargill plans to start up a 65,000-tonne/year grinding plant in November, boosting Ghana's national cocoa processing capacity by more than 25 percent to almost 320,000 tonnes.
If a series of planned new factories and expansions are realised, Ghana's grinding capacity could rise to almost 500,000 tonnes in the coming years, representing a major investment drive in the industry.
SAF CACAO's new 35,000-tonne/year Choco-Ivoire plant in San Pedro, is expected to cost 13 billion CFA francs ($27 million) and should start making semi-finished cocoa products in January.
"We should be the top grinder in the world -- that's logical," said Choco-Ivoire Managing Director Ali Lakiss.
"Why export beans? We should grind them locally," he said.