International cocoa prices are rising after a call for a ban on cocoa from Cote d\u2019Ivoire. Civic organisations are asking chocolate manufacturers to take up their responsibilities as many of these companies are not transpar\u00adent on where they stand.
\nInternationally recognised President Allas\u00adsane Ouattara\u2019s call to put a ban on export of cocoa from Cote d\u2019Ivoire is being heard. The Dutch Green Party (GroenLinks) has asked the Dutch government to support Ouattara\u2019s call for the embargo.
\nThe Dutch capital, Amsterdam, is the largest trans-shipment port of cocoa in the world. Cargill, one of the biggest global trad\u00ading companies of cocoa, has already made an announcement that it was suspending cocoa purchases from Cote d\u2019Ivoire. However a ban \u00adon importing from the world\u2019s largest cocoa producer could have some long-term effects on the global cocoa trade.
\nBob Stuurman of the Dutch cocoa importer Huyser Moller ensures that the consumer will still be able to buy chocolate. \u201cThere will be enough chocolate bars in the shops and even in the weeks ahead,\u201d Mr. Stuurman says. \u201cI don\u2019t see an immediate problem in the weeks to come. Forward sales and productions are all based on contracts which were concluded ear\u00adlier so the price for that is set.\u201d
\nHowever, prices for cocoa beans have been rising rapidly since the tumult in Cote d\u2019Ivoire. Traders now pay US$3,394.56 per tonne compared to US$2,910.31 per tonne in November last year when Ivorians went to the polls. Dutch chocolate manufacturer, Verkade, expects that, if there is significant increase of cocoa prices, prices for consumers will have to rise too at one point. So consumers may have to pay a higher price for a simple chocolate bar in the second half of 20 II when new contracts between traders and manufactures will be con\u00adcluded.
\nCocoa importers such as Mr Stuurman say that the bulk of Cote d\u2019Ivoire\u2019s crop has already been exported as we are in the middle of the harvest season. \u201cQuite a number of cocoa has already been registered before Ouat\u00adtara\u2019s announcement was made.\u201d This cocoa will probably be released so there will still be a flow of cocoa from ships heading to Amster\u00addam.
\nIt is rather ironic that the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland which started last week is co-\u00adchaired by one of the world\u2019s largest manufacturer of chocolate, Nestle. Avaaz, an interna\u00adtional civic organisation, hopes that Nestle will address the issue at the forum. \u201cWe have started an online petition to persuade multina\u00adtionals to ban the cocoa from Cote d\u2019Ivoire,\u201d says Alex Wilks, campaign director of Avaaz.
\n\u201cWe have been trying to contact Nestle, but they have not given us an answer yet. Many of these companies are not transparent on where they stand. All we are calling for is the head of Nestle to take the honest and prin\u00adciple approach that he is advocating at Davos and extend that to his own operation in Cote d\u2019Ivoire,\u201d Wilks stated.
\nA month-long ban on cocoa exports is like\u00adly to fuel smuggling into neighbouring countries such as Ghana. But according to the spokesperson of the Ghana Cocoa Board, Noah Amenyah, any company found to have pur\u00adchased smuggled cocoa would be sanctioned.\u201dWe will not accept any such practice, especially because it could compromise the quality of the Ghanaian bean,\u201d Amenyah stated.
\nCocoa arrivals in Cote d\u2019 Ivoire were up 13 percent from last year\u2019s levels as of January 23, according to official figures seen by Reuters for the period just before presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara declared an export ban.
\nFor the most recent week, data from the Bourse du Cafe et Cacao (BCC) for January 17\u00ad23 showed 62,209 tonnes of beans were declared at the ports, up from 32,923 tonnes in the same week of the 2009\/2010 season.
\nIn a related development, Danish shipping company, Maersk, has halted cocoa exports from Cote d\u2019Ivoire and stopped taking new orders for imports to the country, in line with European Union restrictions, an official at the company has said.
\nMaersk is the main shipper of lvorian cocoa beans to buyers in the United States and Asia and one of the world\u2019s top container carriers.
\nThe official, who asked not to be named, said the decision was taken after the European Union imposed sanctions on Cote d\u2019Ivoire\u2019s incumbent leader, Laurent Gbagbo, who was locked in a power struggle with rival Alassane Ouattara and had refused international calls to stand-down.
\nThe EU restrictions imposed on January 15 referred to EU-registered ships but some analysts suggested shipping firms might get around the ban by using ships registered elsewhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
International cocoa prices are rising after a call for a ban on cocoa from Cote d\u2019Ivoire. Civic organisations are asking chocolate manufacturers to take up their responsibilities as many of these companies are not transpar\u00adent on where they stand. Internationally recognised President Allas\u00adsane Ouattara\u2019s call to put a ban on export of cocoa from Cote […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-275269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n