COPAL COCOA Info - Cocoa Producers' Alliance
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COPAL COCOA Info A Weekly Newsletter of Cocoa Producers' Alliance 8th – 12th September 2008 Cocoa Producers' Alliance In-House Cocoa Newsletter Issue No. 300 UP-COMING EVENTS IN THIS ISSUE INSIDE THIS ISSE: ICCO DAILY COCOA PRICES EUROCHOCLATE 2008, 16-26 OCTOBER 2008, PERUGIA, ITALY LONDON (LIFFE) FUTURES MARKET UPDATE NATIONAL COCOA ACADEMIES SYMPOSIUM, OCTOBER 28-30 2008, KUMASI, GHANA NEW YORK (ICE) FUTURES MARKET UPDATE FROM THE NEWS MEDIA TIT BITS COPAL COCOA DAY CELEBRATIONS IN MEMBER COUNTRIES, 1ST OCTOBER 2008 Do your health a favour, drink Cocoa everyday ‘It’s nature’s miracle food’ In the News (from Newspapers worldwide) Health and Nutrition Why your chocolate craving doesn't mean you're diabetic Craving sweet things is a sign of diabetes. Production and Quality Ghana 2007/08 cocoa purchases end at 680,384 T Cocoa growing district to set up task force against smugglers World Cocoa Production To Outstrip Demand Ivorian San Pedro cocoa arrivals 573,386 T by Sept 7 Indonesia's Cocoa Output May Fall 21% in Three Years (Update1) Ivorian cocoa arrivals around 1.3 mln T by Sept 7 Ghana doubles cocoa fertiliser cash: Cocobod official Cocoa spraying gangs in Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa receives items Ghana cocoa purchases rise near end of light crop Sun, light rain boost Ivorian cocoa prospects Fortis now sees global cocoa surplus in 2008/09 Organic supply squeeze tightens PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Revival of cocoa industry boosts livelihoods Ghana cocoa purchases rise near end of light crop Over 14 million diseased cocoa trees in Eastern Region The Market Foods and Softs Outlook AGRIBUSINESS: Cocoa prices lose 0.62% in New York Ivorian cocoa farm prices fall further on poor quality SOFTS-Sugar rises on hurricane threat, funds sell cocoa ICE Cocoa Review: Dec Dips With Weak Commodities; Awaits News MARKET TALK: ICE Cocoa Slips With Other Weak Commodities ICE Cocoa Review: Rises With Commodities;Eyes US Dlr For Cues Gordon Ramsay Chocolates Buyer Says Speculators `Stole' Market Markets show renewed weakness as dollar rises ICE Cocoa Review: Falls On Strong Dollar, Technical Selling Processing and Manufacturing Confectioners slow to formulate fairtrade products? CPC To Open A Second Factory By December Some Hershey's chocolate topping recalled Search is on for choc pack functional thinking Business & Economy DJ Barry Callebaut Sees Rise In Chocolate Prices - Report New fund seeks profits from Africa farming UPDATE 1-Thorntons bucks downturn with 19.6 pct profit rise UPDATE 1-Callebaut CEO says chocolate prices to rise-paper Cocoa farmer's lives improve - NPP The ethical cocoa confusion Ivory Coast says will overhaul cocoa sector Nestle Sees H2 Growth Slowing as Pricing Eases Japan: Meiji Dairies and Meiji Seika in Merger Talks Market review for last week - PBC Makes Marginal Gains Promotion Oboshie launches cocoa festival Consumers’ moods can inform flavour development, says analyst Expo boosts imports of African products Fairtrade Chocolate Promotional Advent Calendars Launched Labour Issues Workers at Ivory Coast's Coffee and Cocoa Bourse stepped up a strike over pay Nigeria: BAT Reiterates Support for Child Rights, Agric Devt Research and Development Consumer Trends in the Flavor Industry - Study Opportunities for cocoa powder as study shows antioxidant levels Upgrade Cocoa research Centre’ Environmental Issues Indiana Chocolate Company Travels to Peru COCOBOD bans use of some chemicals on cocoa farms Others Mobile phones to tell consumers what to eat Ivory Coast advised to overhaul cocoa sector National Confectioner’s Association Names Chocolate Council; Will Meet Sept. 18 In Washington, D.C. Food of the gods´ highlights fine food fair NBA Star Howard Asks: Got Chocolate Milk? This 2008 US Chocolate Confectionery Report Provides 2007 Year-end Market Size Data, with 2008 Estimates, 5 Years of Historical Data and Five-year Forecasts Farm diversification provides more avenues for income Nana Addo to bring innovations -Into the cocoa industry Chocolate and coffee entrepreneur with a legacy of philanthropy Storms Pound Dominican Agriculture New book reveals the dark history of chocolate Ivory Coast cocoa sector faces season in turmoil Cocoa farmers commend government ICCO Daily Cocoa Prices ICCO daily price (SDR/tonne) ICCO daily price ($US/tonne) London futures (£/tonne) New York futures ($US/tonne) 8th September 1,683.33 2,598.06 1,511.67 2,577.00 9th September 1,681.34 2,594.18 1,506.33 2,560.33 10th September 1,703.19 2,622.81 1,535.67 2,585.00 11th September 1,680.16 2,577.37 1,506.67 2,551.67 12th September 1,685.10 2,596.94 1,485.67 2,568.33 Average 1,687.45 2,597.83 1,508.59 2,566.33 COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 2 International Financial Futures and Options Exchange (LIFFE) London Futures Market – Summary of Trading Activities (£ per tonne) Monday 8th September 2008 Month Opening Trans Settle Change Daily High Daily Low Volume Sep-08 1550 1512 Dec-08 1540 1512 -31 1550 1500S 18,298 -31 1547S 1495 Mar-09 1545 24,619 1513 -29 1545 1498 3,022 May-09 Jul-09 1527 1510 -26 1527S 1497S 421 1507 1510 -29 1511S 1503 Sep-09 39 1521 1510 -27 1525 1505 203 Dec-09 1520 1520 1508 24 1509 -30 Mar-10 1515 -30 0 May-10 1519 -30 0 Jul-10 1505 -35 Totals 1512 Tuesday 9th September 0 46626 2008 Month Opening Trans Settle Change High Low Volume Sep-08 1502 1510 -2 1515 1500 3,589 Dec-08 1499 1507 -5 1518 1496 8,214 Mar-09 1509 1507 -6 1520 1498 1,209 May-09 1501 1505 -5 1509 1497 2,642 Jul-09 1506 1504 -6 1506 1503 74 Sep-09 1498 1504 -6 1507 1495S 383 Dec-09 1500 1507 -2 1508 1498S 115 Mar-10 1513 -2 0 May-10 1517 -2 0 Jul-10 1503 -2 Totals 1508 Wednesday 10th September 0 16,226 2008 Month Opening Trans Settle Change High Low Volume Sep-08 1506 1524 14 1525 1504 1,425 Dec-08 1510 1536 29 1537 1506 4,344 Mar-09 1510 1536 29 1536S 1507 884 May-09 1510 1535 30 1533 1506 197 1534 30 Jul-09 0 Sep-09 1510 1535 31 1530 1505 324 Dec-09 1510 1538 31 1518S 1510 88 Mar-10 1544 31 0 May-10 1548 31 0 Jul-10 1534 31 Totals 1536 COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 0 7,262 3 Thursday 11th September 2008 Month Opening Trans Settle Change High Low Volume Sep-08 1522 1485 -39 1522 1485 2,039 Dec-08 1538 1505 -31 1538 1495 5,049 Mar-09 1536 1510 -26 1536 1499 1,318 May-09 1517 1505 -30 1519 1497 321 Jul-09 1509 1505 -29 1514S 1500S 20 Sep-09 1510 1510 -25 1520 1500 234 Dec-09 1510 -28 0 Mar-10 1516 -28 0 May-10 1520 -28 0 Jul-10 1506 -28 0 Totals 1507 Friday 12th September 8,981 2008 Month Opening Trans Settle Change High Low Volume Sep-08 1485 1460 -25 1490 1458S 10,890 Dec-08 1508 1482 -23 1511 1479 5,374 Mar-09 1516 1488 -22 1516 1487 1,421 May-09 1505 1487 -18 1507S 1490 522 Jul-09 1493 1489 -16 1493S 1493S 17 Sep-09 1510 1493 -17 1510 1493 69 Dec-09 1500 1498 -12 1500 1500 1 Mar-10 1504 -12 0 May-10 1508 -12 0 Jul-10 1494 -12 Totals 1490 18,294 Average for the week 1527 19478 Total for the week COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 0 97,389 4 New York Board of Trade (New York Futures Market – Summary of Trading Activities) (US$ per tonne) Monday 8th September 2008 Month Open Price Change High Low Sep-08 2642 2562 -91 2642 2562 6 Dec-08 2558 2578 -58 2675 2533 4116 Mar-09 2562 2577 -53 2623 2532 686 May-09 2557 2574 -51 2616 2529 177 Jul-09 2550 2571 -49 2571 2550 32 Sep-09 2564 2570 -52 2611 2564 18 Dec-09 2569 2577 -52 2582 2569 14 Mar-10 2585 2593 -45 2603 2585 2 May-10 2587 -49 2587 2587 Jul-10 2587 -49 2587 2587 Totals 25776 Tuesday 9th September Volume 5051 2008 Month Open Price Change High Low Sep-08 2599 Dec-08 2570 Mar-09 Volume 2562 0 2599 2562 1 2562 -16 2595 2536 8250 2582 2560 -17 2582 2536 1330 May-09 2550 2559 -15 2569 2535 280 Jul-09 2548 2555 -16 2555 2534 13 Sep-09 2550 2560 -10 2560 2540 39 Dec-09 2550 2569 -8 2569 2550 7 Mar-10 2579 -14 2579 2579 88 May-10 2575 -12 2575 2575 Jul-10 2575 -12 2575 2575 Totals 2566 Wednesday Month 10008 10th September 2008 Open Price Change High Low Volume 2588 26 2588 2588 9 Dec-08 2552 2594 32 2608 2549 6404 Mar-09 2557 2591 31 2602 2551 1364 May-09 2549 2588 29 2595 2549 297 Jul-09 2549 2583 28 2583 2549 68 Sep-09 2566 2586 26 2592 2566 74 Dec-09 2595 26 2595 2595 11 Mar-10 2605 26 2605 2605 481 May-10 2609 34 2609 2609 Jul-10 2609 34 Totals 2595 Sep-08 COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 8708 5 Thursday 11th September 2008 Month Open Price Change High Low Sep-08 2510 2550 -38 2600 2510 Dec-08 2607 2540 -54 2607 2516 4681 Mar-09 2593 2542 -49 2593 2517 652 May-09 2551 2543 -45 2563 2518 76 Jul-09 2550 2544 -39 2554 2525 13 Sep-09 2550 2551 -35 2555 2527 100 Dec-09 2550 2555 -40 2555 2530 63 Mar-10 2560 2565 -40 2565 2560 1 May-10 2565 -44 2565 2565 Jul-10 2565 -44 2565 2565 Totals 2552 Friday Month 12th September 2008 Open Price Volume 5586 Change High Low Volume 2550 0 2550 2550 7 Dec-08 2560 2560 20 2585 2535 6197 Mar-09 2564 2561 19 2583 2550 1379 May-09 2563 2561 18 2572 2561 305 Jul-09 2556 2560 16 2573 2556 421 Sep-09 2568 2568 17 2568 2568 65 Dec-09 2575 20 2575 2575 37 Mar-10 2583 18 2583 2583 13 May-10 2583 18 2583 2583 Jul-10 2583 18 2583 2583 Totals 2568 Average for the week 7211 Sep-08 8424 7555 Total for the week 45,332 Spot Prices (US $ per tonne) Main Crop Ghana, Grade 1 Main Crop Ivory Coast, Grade 1 Main Crop Nigerian, 1 Superior Arriba Sanchez f.a.q Malaysian 110 Sulawesi f.a.q Ecuador Cocoa Liquor Pure Prime Press African Type Cocoa Butter 10/12% Natural Cocoa Press Cake 8th September 9th September 10th September 11th September 12th September 3040 2891 2875 2940 2945 2561 2811 4348 7322 1066 3024 2875 2859 2924 2929 2545 2795 4321 7276 1059 3056 2907 2891 2956 2961 2577 2827 4375 7367 1072 3002 2853 2837 2902 2907 2523 2773 4284 7214 1050 3022 2873 2857 2922 2927 2543 2793 4318 7270 1058 Source: Cocoa Merchant Association COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 6 News Health and Nutrition Why your chocolate craving doesn't mean you're diabetic The Sun, UK - 12 hours ago Chocs away ... but sweet tooth not a cause of diabetes RECKON you might have diabetes? First, check your postcode – according to recent research, your chances of being diagnosed depend on where you live. Apparently, in the poshest areas — like Kensington and Chelsea in London — almost half of those with diabetes don’t realise they’ve got it. Maybe it’s the champagne lifestyle (not the sugar content) and they’re too tipsy to make an appointment. It certainly rings true: We know that more than half a million Brits suffering diabetes don’t even realise it. Who’s to blame? Maybe no one. After all, diabetes sometimes causes no symptoms at all. So perhaps doctors should simply test more patients. But the docs are usually quick off the mark when you do have the right symptoms. And there’s no real agreement about whether screening — testing people who are well — is a good idea. Sorted What about you patients? Maybe part of the problem is you’re hiding yourselves from us GPs — perhaps because diabetes is responsible for more fairytales than Hans Christian Andersen. One of the commonest is that diabetes means insulin injections. In fact, insulin isn’t needed in most adult cases. It might become necessary, some years later — but only after diet, then pills, have been tried. That’s one myth sorted. But there are plenty more where that came from .. It’s caused by eating too much sugar. True, treatment may mean cutting down on sugary foods. But that doesn’t mean your chocolate habit caused it in the first place. Diabetes actually results from your body not producing enough of the hormone insulin — or from your own insulin losing its effect. You can catch diabetes from someone else who has it. Rubbish — go to the bottom of the class. Diabetics need to spend a fortune on special food and drinks. Wrong. A “diabetic” diet simply involves sensible, healthy eating. You’ll get detailed advice from a dietitian. But there’s no need for special — and often expensive — “diabetic” products. The key thing for diabetics is to get their sugars down. Bet this one caught you out. Traditionally, treatment always focused on sugar levels. And lowering a high sugar will make you feel better and helps prevent complications. But even more important is stopping your arteries sludging up — because diabetics are at increased risk of heart attacks and strokes. So don’t be surprised if your doc’s most interested in sorting out your cholesterol, blood pressure, weight and smoking. COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 7 You can diagnose diabetes with a urine test. Nope. Testing your wee gives the doc a clue. But the acid test is a blood sample. You can’t prevent diabetes. Oh yes you can. Or, at least, you can reduce the risk — by exercising and avoiding middle-aged spread. Craving sweet things is a sign of diabetes. I hear this myth just about every week. The confusion comes from the fact that “known” diabetics sometimes need a quick sugar fix if their treatment pushes their levels too low. So what really are the symptoms of diabetes? A new and persistent thirst and passing gallons of wee. Other possibilities include feeling tired, repeated infections and weight loss — though these usually have causes other than diabetes. In fact, the disease often first shows itself through complications like eye trouble or erection problems. And if your doc doesn’t seem to take you seriously? You could try changing your address. Just don’t move to Chelsea or Kensington. Hold the milk to benefit from tea Dr. Andrew Weil, The Edmonton Journal Published: Monday, September 08 Q: I drink several cups of green tea every day for the health benefits. I prefer it with a little milk, but I've heard that milk proteins might interfere with polyphenol absorption. Is this true? Would the same apply to hot chocolate made with milk? A: Polyphenols called catechins are the antioxidant compounds found in tea that confer its well-known health benefits. They're present in all types of true tea (from the plant Camellia sinensis). Catechin content is the highest in white tea, the least processed type. Green tea has the next highest catechin content, then oolong and, finally, black tea. If you add milk to your tea, the milk protein, casein, binds catechins, making them unavailable to the body. German researchers recently focused on this effect in a small study, which included 16 postmenopausal women who first drank black tea without milk. The investigators found that the tea improved the ability of arteries to relax and expand, increasing blood flow. But when skim milk was added to the tea, this healthy effect was blocked. They also looked at how tea alone and tea with added milk affected blood vessels in rats and observed the same effects seen in the women. Not surprisingly, this study got a lot of attention in England, a nation of tea drinkers, most of whom take their tea with milk. The findings may explain why the lower rates of heart disease and cancer seen in Asians (who traditionally don't add milk to tea) haven't shown up in the United Kingdom. Like tea, cocoa is rich in polyphenols, but of a different chemical class. A study published in the April 2007 Journal of Food Science found that milk proteins don't reduce the bioavailability of the polyphenols found in cocoa. The reasons for the difference in milk's effects on polyphenols in tea and cocoa aren't completely understood. I don't imagine the tea-drinking Brits are going to change their ways and give up adding milk to their tea, but if you really want the health benefits of green tea, you should try to develop a taste for it without milk. COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 8 Production & Quality Ghana 2007/08 cocoa purchases end at 680,384 T Sat 13 Sep 2008, ACCRA (Reuters) - Ghana's full-season cocoa purchases declared by private buyers to the Cocobod regulator totaled 680,384 tonnes for the 2007/08 season, according to data supplied to Reuters by an industry source on Friday. Purchases in the world's second biggest grower were up 10.7 percent on last season's total of 614,700 tonnes. Purchases during the light crop season, which ended early on September 4, totaled 16,826 tonnes, down from 27,030 tonnes the previous year. Registration closed on Thursday, when purchases of 617 tonnes in the final week were recorded. The season finished a day short of 10 weeks instead of the usual 11 weeks, after a surge in smuggling across the border to Ivory Coast, where buyers offer higher prices than Ghana's fixed farm-gate price. Cocoa growing district to set up task force against smugglers Ghana Dot, Ghana - 13 Sep 2008 Jasikan (V/R), Nov 29, Ghanadot/GNA - A taskforce is to be instituted among stakeholders in the main cocoa growing districts in the Volta region to clampdown on activities of cocoa smugglers and their collaborators across the country's eastern frontier with Togo. The target areas are Jasikan, Hohoe and Kadjebi districts. Mr Solomon Kwame Donkor, Jasikan District Chief Executive (DCE) who announced this said smuggling of cocoa along the eastern frontier was increasing and urged people living in the area to help combat the crime. Mr Donkor said this at the seventh annual cocoa farmers' and workers awards celebration at Jasikan. It was under the theme, "Produce Buying Company (PBC) and the Cocoa Farmer: A Better Future". He mentioned the debilitating effect of embezzlement of resources meant for the purchase of cocoa by clerks of PBC whose action were often times blamed on government for non-performance and urged stakeholders to stamp out all negative tendencies, warning that the task force would not spare anybody. The DCE said government was supporting the cocoa industry with interventions like the mass spraying exercise; rehabilitation of farms, consistent guaranteed pricing, scholarship schemes all targeted at boosting production. Mr Donkor however said while cocoa production shot up to over 700,000 tons from below 400,000 tons in 2000, the region's fortune continue to dwindle. Mr Anthony Osei Boakye, Managing Director of PBC said the Board and Management had concluded plans to sponsor the drilling of a number of boreholes fitted with hand pumps from the 2008/2009 main cocoa crop season in distressed areas as part of its social responsibility pact to the communities. He said PBC would diversify into the internal and external sheanut trade and operates basically in the three northern regions of Upper West, Northern and Upper East while revamping its haulage units aimed at repositioning the Company on a sound economic footing. Mr Boakye said these efforts are geared towards the rebirth of the Company for new relationship, partnership and a guaranteed future. He commended faithful and loyal cocoa farmers for their hard work and support for the economy. Mr Prosper Zagbla, Volta Regional Principal Marketing Officer of PBC, announced that production figures continue to dwindle, falling from over 37,000 bags in 2000 to below 12,000 bags in 2006 adding that some cocoa farms which benefited from the government's interventions failed to produce a single bean. He said smuggling of the commodity was a booming business across Ghana's eastern frontier with Togo with buying agents from that country patronizing even wet beans due to the price differentials. COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 9 Nana Adjei Kramo I, Regional Cocoa, Coffee and Sheanut Chief Farmer, who presided, appealed to his compatriots to redouble their efforts at stemming the cocoa smuggling menace. He also called on government to review its position on haulage of seedlings to farms and cost per seedling. Meanwhile, Mr H. Y. Gyambibi of Asato-Gyamonome and Mr Nathaniel Atsu of Nayi Kope were adjudged the Volta Regional and District Best Cocoa farmers with nine cocoa societies and other individuals including Mr Philemon Ankah winning the Best District PBC Senior Officer prize. They received prizes ranging from 21 inch Colour Television, cookware, cloth, and Wellington boots, standing fan, cutlasses and plaques. World Cocoa Production To Outstrip Demand Graphic Online, Ghana - 12 Sep 2008 Global cocoa production is now expected to outstrip demand in 2008/09 with a small surplus of 18,000 tonnes, compared with a deficit of 101,000 tonnes in 2007/08, Fortis said on Wednesday. The investment bank had previously projected a deficit of 21,000 tonnes for 2008/09 and a shortfall of 29,000 tonnes in 2007/08. Fortis left its estimate for net world cocoa production in 2008/09 virtually unchanged at 3.76 million tonnes, but cut its forecast for world grindings to 3.74 million from 3.78 million. "The rise is not just cocoa prices but all inputs for confectioners have begun to feed into the retail end of the business and large chocolate manufacturers have begun - some in public, others privately no doubt - to scale back their growth expectations," Fortis said. "Cocoa demand is inevitably going to be hit by the wider economic slowdown and it is difficult to see where demand growth will come from in the immediate future," the report said. The sharp increase in the deficit estimate for 2007/08 partly reflected a lower estimate for net world production of 3.61 million tonnes versus 3.66 million. Ivorian San Pedro cocoa arrivals 573,386 T by Sept 7 Fri 12 Sep 2008 ABIDJAN, Sept (Reuters) - Cocoa arrivals at Ivory Coast's port of San Pedro reached 573,386 tonnes from Oct. 1 to Sept. 7, data from the Coffee and Cocoa Bourse (BCC) obtained by Reuters showed on Friday. That compared with 492,616 tonnes delivered to the port during the same period of the previous season, the data showed. The figures showed 3,549 tonnes arrived at San Pedro port from Sept. 1 to Sept. 7, down from 8,057 tonnes in the same period of the previous season. Indonesia's Cocoa Output May Fall 21% in Three Years (Update1) By Yoga Rusmana and Naila Firdausi Sept. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Indonesia's cocoa output may fall by 21 percent if the world's third-largest producer of the chocolate ingredient can't fight diseases that slash yields and risk driving farmers to abandon the crop, an industry group said. ``Annual production can fall to 380,000 tons to 400,000 tons within three years if the disease is not contained,'' from this year's 480,000 tons, Halim Razak, chairman of the Indonesian Cocoa Association, told reporters in Jakarta. Trees are affected by the pod borer larvae and Vascular Streak Dieback disease, he said. Dwindling Indonesian output may exacerbate a global deficit and sustain gains in prices that touched their highest in at least 20 years in July. About 60 percent of the trees in Indonesia's main cocoa-producing regions in Sulawesi have been infected with the larvae or the disease, Razak said. ``Yields can fall to 380 kilograms a hectare from the current 500 kilograms if the disease can't be contained,'' Razak said. ``If that happens, that would trigger growers to switch to other commodities,'' he said, adding that an eventual decline in output to 100,000 metric tons was possible, without giving a timeframe. Cocoa for December delivery fell 2.1 percent to $2,540 a ton yesterday on the ICE Futures U.S., the former New York Board of Trade. The most-active contract reached $3,290 a ton on July 1, the highest in more than two decades. Razak's projection for this year's crop matches a revised forecast from the International Cocoa Organization, which on Aug. 22 said the nation's output in the 12 months ending October may total 480,000 tons compared with its earlier call of 570,000 tons. Indonesia harvested 530,000 tons of cocoa in the 2007 crop year. COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 10 Vascular Streak Dieback disease is a fungal condition that keeps cocoa trees from developing pods and eventually kills them. Laurent Pipitone, a statistician at the London-based International Cocoa Organization, said in August that the disease had affected output in Sulawesi ``quite significantly.'' Ivorian cocoa arrivals around 1.3 mln T by Sept 7 ABIDJAN, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Cocoa arrivals at ports in top grower Ivory Coast reached around 1,317,000 tonnes from Oct. 1, 2007 to Sept. 7, 2008, exporters estimated on Monday, compared with 1,209,073 tonnes in the same period of the previous season. According to the estimate, around 7,000 tonnes of beans were delivered to the West African state's two ports in the week of Sept 1-7, down from 12,801 tonnes in the same week a year ago. That compared with 6,213 tonnes of beans arriving at Abidjan and San Pedro ports in the previous week. (Reporting by Ange Aboa, editing by Pascal Fletcher and Peter Blackburn) Ghana doubles cocoa fertiliser cash: Cocobod official ACCRA (Reuters) - Ghana's government has doubled its budgetary allocation for supplying fertliser to cocoa farmers for the 2008/09 crop starting this month, an official at the Cocobod cocoa regulator said at the weekend. The world's second biggest producer aims to raise its cocoa output to 1 million tonnes a year by 2010, from an average of 670,000 tonnes over the past four seasons. "A key component of the strategy toward the 1 million target is to encourage farmers to shift from traditional to hi-tech production, through increased fertiliser application," said the official, who declined to be named as they were not authorised to speak to the media. The budgetary allocation for fertiliser had been doubled to 65.5 million cedis for the 2008/09 crop, the official said. "We believe the doubling of the fertiliser budget this year is a giant step ... It puts us on track," the official said. Cocoa spraying gangs in Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa receives items Breman Asikuma (C/R) Sept. 8, GNA - Mr Philip Bedzra, Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa District Cocoa Officer, has urged cocoa spraying gangs in the area not to extort money from the farmers before spraying their cocoa farms. He said the mass cocoa spraying exercise was free of charge and it is necessary for every cocoa farmer in the country to enjoy the initiative. Mr Bedzra said this in an interview with Ghana News Agency at Breman Asikuma, after members of the district task force for the cocoa spraying exercise had distributed some items to 40 spraying gangs at their various stations in the district. Mr Bedzra said the items supplied to the gangs included 168 cartons of insecticides (ACTARA), 144 pairs of Willington boots, 140 overalls, and 9,000 litres of premix fuel. Also given were goggles, respirators, hats and gloves. He said unlike the pervious years when gang supervisors travelled to the district office to collect their inputs, this time the task force had decided to send them to the door steps of the gangs. He said members of the task force comprised, the District Cocoa Officer, the District Chief Executive, Director of Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), District Chief Cocoa Farmer and representative from Licensing Cocoa Buying Companies in the Area. He advised cocoa farmers in the area to weed their farms to make the spraying easy and also cooperate with the gangs for the success of the programme. Mr Bedzra said a request had been made to the National Co-ordinator for Programme to increase the number of the gangs in the area to enable them cope with the volume of work. 8 Sept. 08 Ghana cocoa purchases rise near end of light crop ACCRA, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Cocoa purchases declared by private buyers to Ghana's industry regulator Cocobod pulled ahead of last year's levels by the penultimate week of the season but confirmed the crop was way below expectations. Declared purchases in the world's No. 2 grower reached 16,195 tonnes in the first nine weeks of the 2008 light crop, up 6.9 percent on the 15,145 tonnes declared in the first week of last year's light crop, an industry source said on Monday. COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 11 However, after Cocobod cut short this year's light crop on Sept. 4 -- a day under 10 weeks instead of the usual 11-week season -- the harvest was sure to disappoint even after Cocobod cut its target by a third to 40,000 tonnes several weeks ago. The light crop, which is the second of Ghana's two-cycle cocoa crop year, closed on Sept. 4 after Cocobod decided to open the main crop early to curb smuggling and release stocks held by farmers hoping to earn higher prices when the main crop opens. Buyers have until Sept. 11 to declare light crop purchases to Cocobod, so final figures for the light crop and the overall 2007/08 crop will not be available until after that date. Purchases for week nine, ending Aug. 28, totalled 2,581 tonnes, up from 1,697 tonnes in the previous week and more than double the 1,090 tonnes purchased in the ninth week of last year's light crop, the industry source said. Before this year's light crop opened on June 27, Cocobod said it hoped to buy at least 50,000 tonnes of cocoa, up from less than 27,000 tonnes last year. It later raised the target to 60,000 tonnes but cut it back to 40,000 tonnes due to smuggling to Ivory Coast, where buyers were offering prices higher than Ghana's fixed farm-gate price; and unfavourable weather conditions. "SIGNS OF GOOD MAIN CROP" The 2007/08 main crop, which ran from mid-October to June 5, totalled 663,558 tonnes, up 12.9 percent on the previous season and up from an initial Cocobod forecast of 600,000 tonnes. But after the disappointing light crop, there was little chance of hopes for a 700,000-tonne annual crop being realised. Cocobod said on Friday that it would open the 2008/09 main crop on Sept. 12, several weeks earlier than usual, with a 36-percent rise in the farm-gate price to 1,632 cedis ($1,412) per tonne, as part of its efforts to halt smuggling. "There are signs of a good harvest in the upcoming main crop season and Cocobod needed to respond strategically," the industry source said. "It is a bold move and we're hoping to see a dramatic improvement in our purchases." Joseph Kuuli, an industry analyst, told Reuters that the price increase announced last Friday puts Ghana slightly ahead of Ivory Coast in terms of farm gate price attractiveness and could encourage smuggling of Ivorian cocoa for sale in Ghana. "It may be the other way round now," says Kuuli. Over the years large quantities of cocoa were smuggled both ways over the border between Ghana and Ivory Coast, the world's top grower, as farmers and merchants try to arbitrage between Ghana's fixed price and Ivory Coast's floating market price. The two countries have grown roughly 55-60 percent of the world's cocoa output in recent seasons. (Reporting by Kwasi Kpodo; editing by Alistair Thomson and Peter Blackburn) Sun, light rain boost Ivorian cocoa prospects By Loucoumane Coulibaly ABIDJAN, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Extended periods of sunshine mixed with lighter rains in most of Ivory Coast's main cocoa areas over the last week should help stem the spread of black pod disease and produce high volumes of beans, farmers said. One region did, however, report a continuation of the heavy rain and a lack of sun that has increased humidity and the subsequent incidence of black pod in recent weeks. COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 12 As a result of the conditions, some exporters warned last week that the 2008/09 crop, due to start in October, was likely to be 6-8 percent smaller than the 2007/08 harvest. Cocoa arrivals at ports reached around 1.3 million tonnes for the season so far, exporters estimated on Monday. [ID:nL846535]. U.S. cocoa futures sank to a five-month low on New York's ICE market in early trade, falling 3.9 percent to $2,533 a tonne before recovering to $2,572 by 1500 GMT, down 2.43 percent from Friday's close. "Throughout the week we had light rains mixed with sunshine, This is good for the cocoa," said Marcel Aka, whose farm is in Daloa, the centre-western region that produces a quarter of Ivory Coast's cocoa. Aka said continued rain would sustain the high number of pods on the trees, which will be harvested through January. In the eastern region of Abengourou, near the border of Ghana, the world's second largest cocoa producer, farmers also welcomed long sunny spells which would help to fight black pod. "For a week now we have had a decent amount of sun with a little rain. That augurs well," said farmer Joseph Amani. "If the weather continues like this, the cases of black pod in the area will fall, allowing farmers to save the pods that have not been affected," he added. The administration of the industry in the world's top cocoa grower is in crisis as a power struggle has paralysed some of the institutions caught up in a corruption scandal. Farmers have said they needed a drier September to fight black pod, allow the crop to develop and dry beans ahead of the new season, which starts next month. "We are very happy -- the sun has shone and we have four light rains," said farmer Salem Kone, whose farm is on the outskirts of Soubre, in the west of the country. Similarly favourable conditions were reported in the coastal regions of San Pedro and Sassandra, the southern regions of Divo and Agboville and the western region of Duekoue. Only in the western region of Gagnoa did farmers complain of wet and cloudy weather which, they warned, could hit volumes at the start of the new season. "It rained nearly all week. We are worried because the weather has allowed black pod to attack the pods," said farmer Ousmane Ouedraogo. "If the weather does not dry up, we fear we will not have enough beans to sell at the opening of the (2008/09) season." (Writing by David Lewis, editing by Alistair Thomson and Peter Blackburn) Fortis now sees global cocoa surplus in 2008/09 Wed 10 Sep 2008, LONDON (Reuters) - Global cocoa production is now expected to outstrip demand in 2008/09 with a small surplus of 18,000 tonnes, compared with a deficit of 101,000 tonnes in 2007/08, Fortis said on Wednesday. The investment bank had previously projected a deficit of 21,000 tonnes for 2008/09 and a shortfall of 29,000 tonnes in 2007/08. Fortis left its estimate for net world cocoa production in 2008/09 virtually unchanged at 3.76 million tonnes but cut its forecast for world grindings to 3.74 million from 3.78 million. "The rise in not just cocoa prices but all inputs for confectioners has begun to feed into the retail end of the business and large chocolate manufacturers have begun - some in public, others privately no doubt - to scale back their growth expectations," Fortis said. COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 13 "Cocoa demand is inevitably going to be hit by the wider economic slowdown and it is difficult to see where demand growth will come from in the immediate future," the report said. The sharp increase in the deficit estimate for 2007/08 partly reflected a lower estimate for net world production of 3.61 million tonnes versus 3.66 million. The downward revision derives mainly from Ivory Coast's mid-crop, which Fortis now estimates will total 282,000 tonnes, 78,000 tonnes lower than its original forecast, and Indonesia's main crop at 310,000 tonnes, 50,000 tonnes lower. Organic supply squeeze tightens By Sarah Hills Foodanddrinkeurope.com 09-Sep-2008 - Farmers in the US are being forced to leave the organic market because it is too costly, compounding supply shortages already faced by food manufacturers, according to a new report. The cost of feed among other issues means that organic farming is proving uneconomical for some, particularly in the dairy sector, and they are leaving the industry, said Jim Wedeberg, director of the Organic Valley Dairy Pool co-operative. Meanwhile demand for organic products continues to grow but this is threatening to “deluge” the supplystrapped organic industry, according to the Nutrition Business Journal Report on Organic Markets 2008, to be published next month. Careful planning, sourcing and contracting have helped many manufactures weather the current supply crunch but despite such measures, some sectors, including dairy and meat, are still being hit hard, it said. Organic feed prices have soared in recent months and Organic Valley, made up of more than 1,200 farmerowners in the US, said it has seen dairy and livestock producers decide to get out of organic husbandry and agriculture altogether. They are also struggling to replace them because converting to organic “simply isn’t financially appealing these days”. Wedeberg is quoted in the report saying: “It’s the most critical time I’ve seen as far as cost and availability of feed.” Like organic food increased demand for organic feed is said to have brought shortages and higher prices, among other factors. Another company, Aurora Organic Dairy, said it has seen corn prices jump nearly 60 percent and soy and oat prices between 10 and 30 percent, which were compounded by a sharp rise in fuel costs. To address this Aurora is encouraging self-sufficiency by growing your own feed supplies or locating closer to feed sources. The report said: “Manufacturers, retailers and industry analysts all agree that the most significant damper on the bright future of US organics is the worsening supply squeeze confronting the industry. “While more nuanced challenges linked to consumers’ perceptions about health, taste and sustainability; government regulations and support of organic farming; new technology such as cloning and nanotechnology; and even recession will continue to shape the industry’s evolution, the supply issue is the pivotal factor facing US organic companies right now.” Demand and supply The limited availability of raw organic materials means that some companies are not achieving their potential because supply can’t keep pace with demand. CEO for Annie’s Homegrown food company, John Foraker said: “We could have grown our organic business and our organic-positioned products much faster at any time over the last five years if there had been a much broader availability of supply.” COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 14 The report also highlights US Department of Agriculture claims that organic farming is the fastest growing sector in the US, although its most recent data is from 2005, and this suggests that organic agriculture is only a fraction (0.5 percent) of total agricultural acreage. The government offers grants to make the transition to organic easier but this is described as “spotty” from one state to the next. There are also provisions in the 2007 Farm Bill which would help with costs such as getting organic certification. But the final version of the Bill is yet to be agreed. Sourcing organic Companies are already looking outside of the US to source organic products. SunOpta announced this month that it is expanding its global organic supply chain to help tackle shortages with a new agreement to acquire the Pure Nature Organics brand. The company is looking to diversify and develop its supply sources for organic broccoli, green beans, edamame, asparagus among other vegetables and fruits, primarily in Central America. The Organic Trade Association (OTA) reports that US organic food sales have grown between 17 and 21 percent annually since 1997. That compares to between two and four percent growth for total US food sales during the same time period. However, a recent report from The Hartman Group indicated that the organic trend has reached a plateau as consumer interest is waning and attention turns to other food categories such as fresh, local and fair trade. The report added that this does not mean that the organic market is expiring as concerns for quality and health mean that consumers are drawn to fresh organic categories which offer the perceived benefits of being hormone or pesticide free. These include dairy, fruit, vegetables, prepared foods, meats, breads and juices. PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Revival of cocoa industry boosts livelihoods 09 Sep 2008 Source: IRIN Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone. BOUGAINVILLE, 9 September 2008 (IRIN) - The Autonomous Region of Bougainville intends to reclaim the record as the biggest producer of cocoa in Papua New Guinea this year. Output in Bougainville is expected to exceed last year's level of 15,000 tonnes. The latest production report from agricultural authorities in June showed that 12,500 tonnes had already been produced this year. This boost is due to a cocoa rehabilitation project supported by the Australian aid agency AusAID, the European Union, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and other organisations. The EU supplied two million cocoa seedlings to farmers from the late 1990s and these trees are now bearing fruit. Cocoa production throughout Papua New Guinea was hard hit by the cocoa pod borer late in 2007. Scientists are still trying to determine how the destructive pest entered the country. Authorities immediately applied strict quarantine measures to stop it spreading and say they are having success, although authorities reported on 9 September a fresh infestation in East New Britain Province. With world cocoa prices at a high of US$3,000 a tonne, there are strong incentives for farmers to boost production. "My family has been very lucky that we planted our cocoa plantations as soon as the peace process started," says Ludwig Nairong, a cocoa farmer from Tinputz District, in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville. "We have been living on cocoa for cash income," Nairong said, "and we have been able to meet most of the cost of educating our children and establish a small trading store business." COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 15 Even though times are good for cocoa producers, they are calling on the government to put in place support mechanisms in the event prices should drop unexpectedly. The government, meanwhile, has been advising farmers that while cocoa prices are high, they should save or invest their earnings wisely. In Buka town, the main administrative centre for the region, many farm families have seen their livelihoods soar. More than US$1.8 million is circulating among 3,000 cocoa farm families, according to one bean buyer. Farmers in Buka and the greater Autonomous Region of Bougainville together may be sharing more than $3 million, according to estimates of the Agricultural Ministry in Bougainville and the Internal Revenue Commission. Papua New Guinea, on average, produces more than 100,000 tonnes of cocoa every year, with the bulk exported to the USA, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. Thailand, Germany and the UK also import about 5 percent each of PNG's cocoa production. Until 2006, East New Britain Province was the largest producer of cocoa at 55 percent, followed by Bougainville with 19 percent, Madang 8 percent, East Sepik 6 percent, New Ireland 5 percent, West New Britain 3 percent and other smaller growing provinces accounting for 4 percent. Bougainville had traditionally been the largest cocoa producer until the late 1980s when the secessionist conflict began. With the demise of many large plantations, smallholder growers entered the business, seeing the opportunity to earn more money than on the large plantations, which were typically owned by foreigners. Ghana cocoa purchases rise near end of light crop By Kwasi Kpodo ACCRA, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Cocoa purchases declared by private buyers to Ghana's industry regulator Cocobod pulled ahead of last year's levels by the penultimate week of the season but confirmed the crop was way below expectations. Declared purchases in the world's No. 2 grower reached 16,195 tonnes in the first nine weeks of the 2008 light crop, up 6.9 percent on the 15,145 tonnes declared in the first week of last year's light crop, an industry source said on Monday. However, after Cocobod cut short this year's light crop on Sept. 4 -- a day under 10 weeks instead of the usual 11-week season -- the harvest was sure to disappoint even after Cocobod cut its target by a third to 40,000 tonnes several weeks ago. The light crop, which is the second of Ghana's two-cycle cocoa crop year, closed on Sept. 4 after Cocobod decided to open the main crop early to curb smuggling and release stocks held by farmers hoping to earn higher prices when the main crop opens. Buyers have until Sept. 11 to declare light crop purchases to Cocobod, so final figures for the light crop and the overall 2007/08 crop will not be available until after that date. Purchases for week nine, ending Aug. 28, totalled 2,581 tonnes, up from 1,697 tonnes in the previous week and more than double the 1,090 tonnes purchased in the ninth week of last year's light crop, the industry source said. Before this year's light crop opened on June 27, Cocobod said it hoped to buy at least 50,000 tonnes of cocoa, up from less than 27,000 tonnes last year. It later raised the target to 60,000 tonnes but cut it back to 40,000 tonnes due to smuggling to Ivory Coast, where buyers were offering prices higher than Ghana's fixed farm-gate price; and unfavourable weather conditions. "SIGNS OF GOOD MAIN CROP" The 2007/08 main crop, which ran from mid-October to June 5, totalled 663,558 tonnes, up 12.9 percent on the previous season and up from an initial Cocobod forecast of 600,000 tonnes. COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 16 But after the disappointing light crop, there was little chance of hopes for a 700,000-tonne annual crop being realised. Cocobod said on Friday that it would open the 2008/09 main crop on Sept. 12, several weeks earlier than usual, with a 36-percent rise in the farm-gate price to 1,632 cedis ($1,412) per tonne, as part of its efforts to halt smuggling. "There are signs of a good harvest in the upcoming main crop season and Cocobod needed to respond strategically," the industry source said. "It is a bold move and we're hoping to see a dramatic improvement in our purchases." Joseph Kuuli, an industry analyst, told Reuters that the price increase announced last Friday puts Ghana slightly ahead of Ivory Coast in terms of farm gate price attractiveness and could encourage smuggling of Ivorian cocoa for sale in Ghana. "It may be the other way round now," says Kuuli. Over the years large quantities of cocoa were smuggled both ways over the border between Ghana and Ivory Coast, the world's top grower, as farmers and merchants try to arbitrage between Ghana's fixed price and Ivory Coast's floating market price. The two countries have grown roughly 55-60 percent of the world's cocoa output in recent seasons. (Reporting by Kwasi Kpodo; editing by Alistair Thomson and Peter Blackburn) Over 14 million diseased cocoa trees in Eastern Region Joy Online, Ghana - 8 Sep 2008 There were at least 15,394,571 diseased cocoa trees in the Eastern Region as at the end of last year. Of these, 879,771 have been removed, as part of measures to check the spread of the Swollen Shoot Virus Disease that is devastating large areas of cocoa and threatening the industry that has been the backbone of the national economy for decades. In the Kade cocoa district alone, 1,310,446 cocoa trees have been identified as diseased as at the end of July this year, following a survey conducted on cocoa farms. This was after the cutting down and uprooting of 52,567 of those affected by the swollen shoot virus. At one of such cocoa farmers education rallies at Twumwusu, the Kade District Cocoa Officer, Mr Ebenezer Agyen, emphasized that the unit would engage local labour to cut and uproot diseased trees on their farms. The swollen Shoot Virus Control Unit (SSVCU) of the Ghana Cocoa Marketing Board (COCOBOD) is waging a relentless war on the disease and is asking for the cooperation of cocoa farmers to make the campaign succeed in order to save the “golden pod”. The SSVCU in the Kade Cocoa District is conducting a sustained campaign by taking the message to all cocoa growing areas on the need to identify diseased trees and promptly getting the unit informed to immediately act to cut and uproot them to save nearby farms and check the spread of the disease. They should therefore co-operate with the control unit and not hide the fact that they had diseased trees on their farms. Cocoa farmers who co-operate, he told them would have no regrets what so ever since they would be given adequate compensation for the lost trees and given further financial incentive if they replant. Mr Agyen regretted that the disease was spreading because of opposition from farmers. Mr Robert Akuffo-Larbi, Chief Technical Assistant, spoke on quality control, farm sanitation and management and correct fertilizer application. COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 17 He said proper maintenance of farms improved production and noted that it was necessary to properly ferment and dry the cocoa beans in order to do away with purple beans. It was also essential to store dried cocoa beans in jute sacks supplied or approved by COCOBOD. Mr E. D. Ofori, Chief Cartographic draughtsman, warned against use of child labour on cocoa farms and advised parents to send their children to school. The Market Foods and Softs Outlook Friday, September 12, 2008 by CRB Research Team of Commodity Research Bureau Foods and Softs Outlook - An Excerpt from CRB'S Futures Market Service COFFEE—Dec Nybot Arabica coffee prices fell to a 3-week low but remained in the 5-3/4 month range. Bearish factors include (1) dollar strength and general commodity selling, (2) the +7.9% m/m rise in Brazilian coffee exports in Aug, (3) ICO’s forecast for a 8.5% hike in global coffee production in 2008/09 to 128 mln bags from 118 mln bags in 2007/08, and (4) the USDA’s forecast of a 36% y/y rise in Brazil’s harvest starting July to 51.1 mln bags (vs last year’s 37.6 mln bags). Bullish factors include (1) coffee growers withholding bean sales until prices rise, (2) speculation Brazil may subsidize its coffee farmers to ensure a minimum price, and (3) the 6-8 mln bag 2007-08 world coffee deficit. As of Sep 2, large specs increased their moderate long position to 18,841. USDA coffee summary: 2007-08 world coffee production 117.8 mln bags (-4.7% vs 200607’s 122.9 mln); 2007-08 world ending stocks at a record low 18.3 mln bags. COCOA—Dec cocoa prices have sold off in the past 2-weeks to post a 4-3/4 month low. Bearish factors include (1) the rally in the dollar to a 1-year high, (2) the +9% y/y rise in Ivory Coast exports during Jan-Aug, and (3) ICO’s forecast for a +8% increase in the 2007-08 global cocoa crop to 3.65 mln tons. Bullish factors include (1) the threat of Black Pod disease due to excessive wet conditions in West Africa, and (2) ICO’s upward revision of its global cocoa deficit forecast to 88,000 MT (from 41,000 MT) due to the cut in its 200708 global cocoa crop forecast to 3.65 mln tons. Large specs as of Sep 2 had a moderate long position of 11,803. COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 18 AGRIBUSINESS: Cocoa prices lose 0.62% in New York Gazeta Mercantil, Brazil - 9 Sep 2008 SÃO PAULO, 9/9/08 - Cocoa contracts maturing in December closed down 0.62% to US$2,562 per tonne on the New York Board of Trade (NYBOT). In London, contracts for December fell 0.33%, quoted at 1,507 pound sterling per tonne. Prices fell on signs that the hike in dollar rates in the past days should lower the demand for commodities. Ivorian cocoa farm prices fall further on poor quality ABIDJAN, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Cocoa farm-gate prices in many of Ivory Coast's main growing areas extended recent losses as bean quality remained poor and farmers sold for quick cash, growers and buyers said on Wednesday. Merchant activity was muted in the traditional lull before the start of the new season in the world's top grower, which starts on Oct. 1. Quality is a major concern after heavy rain in July and August sparked widespread outbreaks of black pod disease, and exporters estimate the upcoming main crop will be at least 6 percent down on the 2007/08 harvest. Exporters are also closely monitoring activity at the Coffee and Cocoa Bourse (BCC), where a strike by unpaid employees has brought the registration system to a halt. BCC prices were unavailable for a fifth consecutive week. "The beans are mouldy, and lots of old, low-quality stock is mixed with new cocoa," said the purchasing manager of a European exporting firm. In the centre-west region of Daloa which produces a quarter of Ivory Coast's cocoa, the average price has fallen to 300-325 CFA francs per kg ($0.703) compared with 300 and 350 CFA francs the previous week, farmers said. Growers who need cash to buy supplies for their children at the start of the new school year are selling at low prices. "Prices have come down sharply," said farmer Marcel Aka. "Lots of planters are looking to sell and aren't too fussy about prices because they need money to buy new school equipment for their children." Benchmark world prices as set in New York <CCZ8> hit a 28-year high of more than $3,000 per tonne in July, partly on worries about the quality of the Ivorian crop, but have since fallen to around $2,600. In the coastal region of San Pedro, the average price paid to farmers was 325-375 per kg, compared with 400450 pr kg in the previous week, as road travel has been made difficult by recent rains, which discouraged buyers from visiting farms. "Prices have fallen because there are zones which are difficult to get to after the rains," said buyer Moustapha Ouedraogo. Meanwhile in the western region of Duekoue, the average price rose to about 400 CFA francs per kg compared with 325-350 per kg the previous week as local buyers built stocks ready for when exporters are expected to return to the market in October. "All the merchants in the region are stockpiling beans to sell to the big exporters at the start of the new campaign," said farmer Mamadou Kone. SOFTS-Sugar rises on hurricane threat, funds sell cocoa 09.08.08, 8:17 AM ET Brazil - * Hurricane Ike threatens sugar crops in Caribbean COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 19 * Cocoa finds industry support after fund-driven slide By Nigel Hunt LONDON, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Sugar prices rose on Monday as traders tracked Hurricane Ike as it moved across key growing areas in the Caribbean, while cocoa fell sharply on selling by system funds. Dealers said sugar also derived support from a rise in crude oil prices inspired by the threat posed by the hurricane ot the U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil hub. "Some of this hurricane stuff makes people a bit uneasy about being short. While it is still ongoing I wouldn't be a hurry to sell anything," one sugar trader said. October raw sugar on ICE was up 0.22 cent at 12.76 cents a lb at 1206 GMT. Dealers said sugar was beginning to find more widespread support after the steep drop in prices during the last couple of weeks. October raws has fallen more than 1.50 cents during that period and key support is now seen around 12.50 cents. The market is also underpinned by more bullish long-term fundamentals. Last week, brokerage and consultancy Kingsman forecast a global deficit of 3.8 million tonnes in 2008/09. "Sugar, because it is at or slightly below the cost of production and a lot of farmers are cutting back, looks relatively bullish certainly through 2009 and 2010," said Commerzbank analyst Edward Hands. White sugar futures in London were also mostly higher although the October contract bucked the trend and weakened slightly as concern about a possible shortage of deliverable supplies waned. October whites futures are due to expire next Monday. "It is going off in a week and now we have found out there isn't a problem with the availability of sugars," one dealer said. October whites was off $0.50 at $383.50 a tonne while December rose $2.50 to $390.00. Cocoa futures fell sharply, extending last week's downward trend although trade and industry buying emerged around the day's lows, dealers said. "I think some system funds have been selling the market, some stops have been triggered and there has been some very good scale-down buying in the market," one dealer said. December cocoa in London was down 42 pounds at 1,501 pounds a tonne while December cocoa on ICE slipped $90 to $2,546 a tonne. Dealers said the market should be able to build a base above 1,490 pounds, basis December. Volume on London cocoa was boosted by a large cross trade of 13,546 lots on September/December at five pounds. Dealers said a fund may have been rolling forward a position out of the front month. Coffee prices were little changed with gains erased as the dollar rebounded from early weakness. November robustas in London were unchanged at $2,166 a tonne, well below its early high of $2,189. December arabica on ICE was up a marginal 0.10 cent at $1.4275 per lb. ICE Cocoa Review: Dec Dips With Weak Commodities; Awaits News INO News - Sep 09 10:29 AM NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--ICE Futures U.S. December cocoa settled modestly lower Tuesday as weaker commodities prices spilled over into the market while traders await news of the coming West Africa main crop. COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 20 Analysts expect cocoa to follow commodities direction until news of the size and quality of the Ivory Coast crop is available. Most-active December cocoa settled $16 lower at $2,562 a metric ton and the nearby September contract settled unchanged at $2,562 as well. Cocoa opened modestly lower and traded side to side before slipping in concert with the general commodities trend. Futures dipped to the $2,536 session low but trimmed losses in late trade. Fundamentals, such as the ongoing strike in Ivory Coast blocking export registrations, are of little importance to the market as traders await news of the main crop, analysts said. Ivory Coast is the world's top cocoa producer. However, "commodities are getting oversold; we could always have a bounce," said Jack Scoville, vice president at Price Futures Group in Chicago. However, down side is possible if commodities slip. "Technically, the market is kind of weak," said Boyd Cruel, senior softs analyst at Alaron Trading in Chicago. Cruel pegs support at $2,490-$2,500 basis December. Liffe December cocoa futures settled down GBP5 at GBP1,507 a ton and September settled GBP2 lower at GBP1,510. ICE cocoa open interest increased by 825 positions Monday to total 130,554, the exchange reported. -By Holly Henschen, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-2338; holly.henschen@dowjones.com Close Change Sep $2,562 unch Dec $2,562 -$16 Mar $2,560 -$17 Range $2,562-$2,599 $2,536-$2,584 $2,536-$2,582 MARKET TALK: ICE Cocoa Slips With Other Weak Commodities INO News - Sep 09 10:29 AM 1041 EDT [Dow Jones] - ICE Dec cocoa futures are trading lower and hugging support levels as the market moves in concert with weaker commodities, an analyst says. Most-active Dec is down $33 at $2,545 a metric ton, and the nearby Oct is up $15 at $2,577. A close below $2,550 basis Dec could lead to significant downside losses back to the $2,300-$2,300 level, though cocoa is oversold and ripe for correction, says Jack Scoville, vice president of Price Futures Group in Chicago. He notes cocoa has been in a downward trend since mid summer. ICE cocoa warehouse stocks decreased by 29,277 145-pound bags to total 2.687 million, according to exchange data. Liffe Dec cocoa is down GBP7 at GBP1,505. (HEH) ICE Cocoa Review: Rises With Commodities;Eyes US Dlr For Cues Sept. 10 2008 NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--ICE Futures U.S. cocoa settled higher Wednesday as the market trailed commodities prices, capped by the stronger U.S. dollar. Most-active December settled $32 higher at $2,594 a metric ton and the nearby October contract settled at up $26 at $2,588. Futures traded near flat in the first half of the session under pressure from the stronger U.S. dollar but supported by manufacturer buying at relatively lower price levels. Fund buying entered mid session as spillover from commodities gains, and December futures punctured $2,600 but slipped back with outside markets. Cocoa held to the upside and closed higher on the day. Cocoa will remain under the influence of the U.S. dollar and commodities prices, though gains are in store if the greenback weakens, analyst said. COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 21 December cocoa will rise to the $2,700-$2,750 level as soon as pressure from the firm U.S. dollar subsides, said James Cordier, president of Liberty Trading and founder of OptionSellers.com in Tampa. The highs point futures will hit in coming weeks is the $2,800-$2,850 level, Cordier said. "People are pricing in smaller demand and slightly better production and that's one reason why cocoa's not going to run away (higher) like it did last year," he said. Nearby resistance is at $2,600-$2,625 basis December, said Dan Vaught, futures analyst at Wachovia Securities in St. Louis. However, an extended drop in crude or jump in the U.S. dollar could push cocoa back toward support at $2,533 followed by $2,450, said Michael Maniatis, market strategist at LaSalle Futures Group in Chicago. In news, Fortis Bank estimates that 2007-08 world cocoa stocks are expected at a deficit of 101,000 metric tons, up from the International Cocoa Organization's 88,000-ton projection. Analysts said the data is supportive to the market, though expectations are likely already priced in, analysts said. "That figure definitely took some of the selling pressure off of cocoa," said Cordier. The market continues in a holding pattern solid indicators of the West Africa main crop condition, analysts said. Liffe December cocoa futures settled up GBP29 at GBP1,536 a ton and September settled GBP14 higher at GBP1,524. ICE cocoa open interest decreased by 144 positions Tuesday to total 130,410, the exchange reported. -By Holly Henschen, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-2338; holly.henschen@dowjones.com Close Change Sep $2,588 +$26 Dec $2,594 +$32 Mar $2,591 +$31 Range $2,588-$2,588 $2,549-$2,608 $2,551-$2,602 Gordon Ramsay Chocolates Buyer Says Speculators `Stole' Market By Claudia Carpenter Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) -- The cocoa market has been ``stolen'' by speculators after prices soared 44 percent this year, said Tom Callnon, a cocoa buyer for the company that makes ``Gordon Ramsay'' chocolates. ``When they see lower prices of cocoa coming through, they will buy up cocoa and drive it up,'' Callnon, who works at Corby, England-based Ashbury Chocolates Ltd., said in a telephone interview today. Callnon has covered the market for 25 years. Cocoa's jump this year, the biggest gain among the 26 commodities in the UBS Bloomberg CMCI index, sent prices in July to the highest since at least 1989. Ashbury makes candies for customers including British chef Gordon Ramsay, best known for his fiery temper and television shows such as ``Hell's Kitchen.'' Cocoa for delivery in December fell 40 pounds, or 2.6 percent, to 1,496 pounds ($2,619) a metric ton as of 3 p.m. in London on the Liffe exchange. Prices on July 1 gained to 1,800 pounds. Cocoa's gains were fueled by a surge in demand for commodities by large investors seeking better returns than stocks and bonds. The MSCI World Index, comprising 1,737 companies, has declined 20 percent this year. U.S. Treasuries have returned investors 5 percent in the period, according to Merrill Lynch & Co. indexes. Production of cocoa fell short of demand by 101,000 tons in the season that ends Sept. 30, narrower than the deficit of 308,000 tons a year earlier, according to Fortis. COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 22 High prices ``are going to affect consumption especially with Christmas coming up,'' Callnon said. ``People may decide they can't afford chocolate. If we get lower prices coming through, it will certainly help with the consumption.'' Ashbury Chocolates bought cocoa to build up inventories earlier this year ``when prices were a bit lower,'' he said. ``We are looking at replenishing all the time, depending on the market.'' Callnon declined to say how much cocoa the company buys. Markets show renewed weakness as dollar rises (Reuters) Khaleej Times, United Arab Emirates 11 September 2008 LONDON - Sugar, coffee and cocoa futures eased on Thursday with a stronger dollar weighing on nervous commodity markets after the sharp setback in prices during the last few days. ‘I think everyone is still shell-shocked. The dollar has picked up again and it looks like sugar is going to continue to ease lower,’ one dealer said. Soft commodity volumes were light. ‘No one has any confidence at the moment. No one knows what to do,’ another dealer said, adding that many participants were reluctant to take speculative positions after losing money during the steep decline of the last few days. March raw sugar on ICE was off 0.05 cent at 13.83 cents a lb at 1156 GMT while December whites in London eased $2.30 to $376.40 a tonne. The drop in prices has led to a modest increase in physical demand with Egypt buying raws and Tunisia buying whites this week. ‘There are definitely some signs of demand picking up on the dip,’ one dealer said. Egypt's Sugar and Integrated Industries Company (SIIC) has bought 46,000 tonnes of Brazilian sugar from Cargill for $338.50 per tonne, and is seeking bids for 50,000 tonnes more sugar, the company said on Thursday. Tunisia bought 28,000 tonnes of whites for October/November shipment, traders said on Thursday. Coffee futures also eased as the dollar hit a one-year high against the euro and a basket of currencies. ‘With the dollar being so strong at the moment it is a decent opportunity to sell,’ one dealer said. Robusta coffee in London were off $6 at $2,157 a tonne while December arabica futures were off 1.50 cents at $1.3930 a lb. Dealers said there should be support around this week's low of $1.3850, basis December arabicas. ‘NY found support at 138.50 (cents) which could translate into the lower end of a trend channel but will need to break back above 140.00 and 141.00 to potentially target the upper line towards 143.50,’ brokers Sucden UK said in a daily report. Weakness in London robusta futures have prompted farmers in Indonesia to hold back on stocks, but an early bumper harvest in main producer Vietnam will ensure steady flows of beans in coming weeks. Vietnam, the world's largest exporter of robusta coffee, will launch the country's first coffee trading floor in December this year as part of efforts to boost sales and prices, the government said on Thursday. Cocoa futures were also lower although prices continued to hold above key support levels. COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 23 December cocoa in London was down 23 pounds at 1,513 pounds a tonne at 1214 GMT and December cocoa on ICE fell $29 to $2,565 a tonne. Dealers said there was solid support beneath 1,500 pounds, basis December London, with scale-down industry buying helping to underpin the market. Market review for last week - PBC Makes Marginal Gains Modern Ghana, Ghana - 8 Sep 2008 Produce Buying Company Limited (PBC) a listed company on the Ghana Stock Exchange has made marginal gains during its third operational quarter ended June 2008. The company's sales revenue for the third quarter of the year increased by 25% from GH¢178.66 million in 2007 to GH¢224.088 million in 2008. Direct, operating, administrative and general expenses however increased by a more significant margin from GH¢19.868 million to GH¢ 26.025 million. This resulted in a net profit of GH¢ 1.68 million, an increase over GH¢1.48 million recorded during the same period last year. PBC's authorised business includes buying, storing, transporting or otherwise dealing in cocoa, coffee, shea nut and sheabutter produced in Ghana and selling same to Ghana Cocoa Board at a guaranteed price. The operational performance of PBC is indexed to the performance of the cocoa sector which peaks in October or November and drops through January, whilst July is the light crop season. The performance of the company's shares on the Ghana Stock Exchange is less impressive. Throughout the year 2007, the company's shares did not record any price appreciation. The price per share rather fell from GH¢0.26 to GH¢0.24. This contrasts sharply with the average performance of the GSE for 2007 which is about 33%. So far this year, the price fell further from GH¢0.24 to GH¢0.22 per share whereas the GSE All Share index has a year to date gain of about 64%. The shares are currently trading at a P.E ratio of 47 times. ICE Cocoa Review: Falls On Strong Dollar, Technical Selling INO News - Sep 08 10:54 AM NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--ICE Futures U.S. cocoa settled lower Monday as the stronger U.S. dollar pressured the market amid light technical selling. Analysts expect cocoa prices to bounce in the near term as the market is oversold unless the dollar continues firm and damps bullishness. Most-active December cocoa settled $58 lower at $2,578 a metric ton and the nearby September contract fell $91 to settle at $2,562. December futures slid on the open under pressure from the dollar and technical selling, but found support at $2,533, the market's lowest intraday price-point since early April. Futures inched off of lows and settled above previous support at $2,550-$2,560 level, analysts said. Cocoa confirmed a downtrend Monday under dollar pressure, but could bounce in the near term, analysts said. "The fact that we're holding up here is a bullish sign," said Rob Kurzatkowski, futures analyst at optionsXpress in Chicago. As futures dip into oversold territory, they develop the potential to be jettisoned higher, Kurzatkowski said. Futures could bounce up toward support at $2,700 in the near term if the firm dollar relents, said Jimmy Tintle, analyst at Transworld Futures in Tampa. However, if the bounce fails, December could slip back into the $2,200s, Kurzatkowski said. More funds will exit from the market if the dollar stays strong as Treasurys and other safe-haven investments become more attractive, he said. The market continues to await substantial news for indicators of the size and quality of the 2008-09 West Africa cocoa crop, analysts said. Cocoa harvest is expected to be in full swing nearer to Oct. 1. ICE cocoa warehouse stocks decreased by 13,264 145-pound bags Friday to total 2.716 million, according to exchange data. COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 24 Liffe December cocoa futures settled down GBP31 ($54.29) at GBP1,512 a ton and September also settled GBP1,512 lower at GBP1,500. Daily ICE cocoa volume and options information, as well as Friday's open interest, were not available from the exchange. -By Holly Henschen, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-2338; holly.henschen@dowjones.com Close Change Sep $2,562 -$91 Dec $2,578 -$58 Mar $2,577 -$53 Range $2,562-$2,642 $2,533-$2,675 $2,532-$2,623 Processing and Manufacturing Confectioners slow to formulate fairtrade products? By Lindsey Partos Foodanddrinkeurope.com 09-Sep-2008 - In a market that showed year-on-year growth of 47 per cent, the signs are evident that opportunities exist for confectioners to win gains through fairtrade confectionery products, but the limited rollout of such targeted products in the past year shows confectioners are still proving reticent. Data from global fairtrade certification body Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO) shows consumers, worldwide, spent over €2.3 billion on fairtrade certified products last year. While this figure pales into the background compared to the estimated retail sales of €2.8 trillion clocked-up annually by shoppers worldwide, the spending on ethically sourced products still represents a 47 per cent leap on the previous year. But, according to data from market trackers Mintel, 114 fairtrade confectionery products were launched in Europe over the last 12 months, and 44 in North America. A number that has moved up just a notch from the same period between 2006 and 2007, that witnessed 108 launches for Europe, and 26 for North America. A closer look at the launches reveals that chocolate is the favoured product for fairtrade certification by confectioners. Perhaps, not surprising, in that producers of ethically sourced cocoa beans, the prime raw material for such products, are gradually gaining certification across the globe. "We're currently working with 34 producer associations, largely co-operatives" a spokesperson for FLO told ConfectioneryNews.com. The certification body counts producers in Belize, Bolivia, Ecuador and Ivory Coast among its associations, with the largest group in Ghana, where one association represents about 40,000 members. But, while progress in certification has been exponential in recent years on the back of growing consumer awareness of ethically sourced cocoa, and consequently blossoming consumer demand, in Ghana alone - that contributes 19 per cent of cocoa to the world market - only around 3 per cent of the cocoa is on fairtrade terms. "A very, very small percentage of the global cocoa market is fairtrade," added the FLO spokesperson. "Fairtrade is a question of education and resources. It takes time to go mainstream." The UK and The Netherlands are apparently two of the biggest markets for these ethical products, but labelling initiatives - members of FLO - the world over are active in approaching the food industry, lobbying, educating the public, and marketing the label at a national level. COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 25 Some food companies have approached the labelling initiatives, says FLO, and signed licensing agreements to use the certificate and logo on their products. About 40 per cent of funding for FLO, a non-profit organisation, hails from these licenses, with the remaining majority of funds made up by donors. And in terms of recent launches, UK confectioner Divine that delivers fairtrade with a decidedly luxurious twist last month launched 'Divine Dark, Milk & White Chocolates' with a new packaging. The box contains 18 handfinished chocolates including pralines, caramels, hazelnut, mocha and fruit flavours. According to the firm, the fairtrade certified chocolates are flavoured using only natural ingredients. The chocolate is packaged in a 225g black box adorned with gold West African Adrinkra symbols. Elsewhere, in France chocolate firm Ed rolled out its 'Commerce Equitable fairtrade chocolate' earlier this month. The product carries an AB organic produce certificate in addition to an Ecocert fairtrade guarantee. The chocolate, made from Ecuador cocoa, is produced by the Unocace cooperative. "The product is described as having a floral fragrance, with high quality cocoa to provide a uniquely fine and perfumed chocolate," writes Mintel. Other ingredients in the product are organic sugar and vanilla extract, plus sunflower lecithin emulsifier. Again, launched onto the French market, confectioner Rapunzel Naturkost has rolled-out the 'Rapunzel Chocolat au Lait', a milk chocolate table made from pure cocoa butter. Further ingredients in the bar include whole cane sugar rapadura, brown cane crystalline sugar, powdered whole milk (24 per cent), cocoa paste, emulsifier: soya lecithin, and bourbon vanilla. And in the US, Kopali Organics turned to health-busting fruit with its May launch of 'Kopali Organics dark chocolate covered mulberries'. Certified USDA organic and fairtrade, the product boasts "antioxidants, vitamin C and bioflavonoids, and is free from preservatives and trans fats." The 2 oz pack aims to highlight the benefits of fair trade and organic foods, and also available from the firm are: cacao 'nibs'; espresso beans; goji berries; and bananas. The fruit theme continues with Endangered Species Chocolate, that in March launched its milk chocolate with cherries product. "This 100 per cent ethically traded product" contains a massive 88 per cent cocoa. According to the firm, 10 per cent of the profits from the product will be donated "to help support species, habitat and human." CPC To Open A Second Factory By December Graphic Online, Ghana - 10 Sep 2008 Cocoa Processing Company (CPC), exporters of cocoa liquor, cake and butter says its rehabilitation works on its second factory should be completed by the end of the year. Rehabilitation work on its old factory, which was expected to be completed by June this year, had to be postponed because of the lack of meaningful progress by the West Africa Gas Pipeline project. The pipeline project was expected to provide energy for the new factory. The expansion works on the second factory involved an upgrade of the old factory to modern standards, which, when completed, will increase its current capacity from 25,000 tonnes to 34,000 tonnes. The company last year completed the first phase of its expansion work which saw the installation of a new modern cocoa milling plant with a capacity of 30,000. The complete expansion works would move the company’s total production capacity to about 65,000 tonnes per annum and generate over US$100 million in revenue annually. Speaking in an interview the Managing Director of the company, Mr Richard Armah-Tetteh, said as a result of the non-completion of the West African Gas Pipeline an alternative arrangement has been made to provide power for the factory. COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 26 The company as part of its expansion programme contracted a 22 million euro facility for its expansion works and another US$22 million for the rehabilitation and other redevelopments. “Our aim is to build a world class factory site comparable to any other in the world”, he stated. Mr Tetteh added that the rehabilitation also includes the rehabilitation of the confectionery section to upgrade its capacity to about 3,000 metric tonnes per annum from the current 1,600 metric tonnes. The company is currently replacing old machines with new ones. He said there has been tremendous increase in the demand for confectionery products of the company over the past few years. “The Ghanaian market is expanding greatly and we need to position ourselves to take advantage of that, to make the products available easily to consumers”, the managing director stated. He said to ensure availability of its confectionery products it has in collaboration with the Ghana Cocoa Board established a shop at the refurbished Cocoa House to provide a one-stop shop for both wholesalers and retailers, as well as serve as the marketing information centre. Additionally, the company has opened new depot in Kumasi and Takoradi as part of efforts to promote its finished cocoa products. Mr Tetteh said “our long term vision is to process 60 per cent of the raw cocoa beans locally”, stressing that the finished products are the high earning products. The company has also embarked on a market diversification strategy in order to find new markets for its products. Some Hershey's chocolate topping recalled WASHINGTON, Sept. 8 (UPI) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced the recall of 7.25-ounce plastic bottles of Hershey's chocolate shell topping due to a labeling error. The FDA said The Hershey Co. initiated the voluntary recall because the product might contain undeclared almonds, posing a health risk for people allergic to almonds. The recalled bottles have the code 69N printed on the back label below UPC 346000 and were sold nationwide after July 8. Search is on for choc pack functional thinking By Neil Merrett ConfectioneryNews 11-Sep-2008 - A Belgium-based packer is hoping to discover innovative new concepts in chocolate packaging at both retail and storage level as part of its own inaugural design competition. SCA packaging says that for its 2008 Design Challenge, the company is looking to students, schools and other non-professional designers for new thinking on packaging that can benefit the entire chocolate production chain. A group spokesperson told ConfectioneryNews.com that it will use the competition to find designs that are innovative both in terms of function and aesthetics, while at the same time addressing sustainability concerns of the industry. “We are at this point material neutral, but we encourage the participants to think wisely in their choice,” the spokesperson stated. The group said that had opted to focus on chocolate bars in an attempt to inject a sense of fun into the competition, while at the same time, honoring Belgium’s reputation as a European haven for chocoholics. Concept success COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 27 Successful designs will be the concepts that can most benefit manufacturers, warehouse staff, retailers and the consumer, SCA claims. Five designs from the competition will be short listed by the group for development and fine tuning with SCA staff. The winning designers will then receive €3,000 as well as an internship at the company’s packaging centre in Brussels or other design operations across Europe, according to SCA. Industry demand SCA says that it already provides a number of packaging and casing products to major confectioners around the world, though added that it was not collaborating with any manufacturers as yet over potential winning designs. The company added that as part of the competition, any designs that go on to be produced will be owned by the company itself, though it would be in talks with creators over the concepts. “We believe in a open dialogue together with the creators,” the spokesperson said. “We are welcoming any designs and are sure that we will be able to make the successful ones [available] to our partners.” Deadlines for submissions are 5 December 2008. Business & Economy DJ Barry Callebaut Sees Rise In Chocolate Prices - Report Tue. September 09, 2008; Posted: 11:09 AM ZURICH, Sep 09, 2008 (Dow Jones Commodities News via Comtex) PowerRating -- Barry Callebaut AG (BARN.EB), the world's leading producer of chocolate for confectionary companies, is set to hike selling prices due to a marked rise in raw material costs, Chief Executive Patrick de Maeseneire told weekly HandelsZeitung. "The selling prices for chocolate will have to go up by 15% to 18%," de Maeseneire was quoted as saying in an advance copy of the paper's Wednesday edition. New fund seeks profits from Africa farming By Alistair Thomson DAKAR, Sept 10 (Reuters) - A new private equity fund plans to invest in agricultural processing in Africa to cash in on booming food prices with backing from a foundation linked to the world's biggest cereal maker, Kellogg Co the fund's manager said. Surging prices and strong demand for food on world markets has refocused philanthropists and investors alike on the rich farming potential of the continent where agriculture contributes 30 percent of sub-Saharan Africa's GDP. "We are primarily interested in the value-added part of the agri-chain. Our focus is on processing, services and logistics, and also the input side," Herman Marais, managing director of the Agri-Vie fund, told Reuters in a phone interview on Tuesday. "We're not in principle excluding anything ... there is a focus on the export crops, fresh (produce) chains, fruit and horticulture, flowers," Marais said. Agri-Vie is initially focusing on South Africa and neighbouring states; on Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda in East Africa; and Ghana and Nigeria in West Africa -- although Marais said the fund hoped to move into Frenchspeaking Africa later. Potential projects in West Africa included the tropical crop cassava, grown for its energy-rich roots and proteinrich leaves, and pineapple juice manufacturing. COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 28 Marais said Agri-Vie was also interested in cocoa grinding in Ghana. Ghana's government hopes to increase the crop by 50 percent to 1 million tonnes by 2010, and grinding capacity is set to double to nearly 500,000 tonnes in the coming years. Agri-Vie has raised around half its target capital of $100 million, and hopes to announce its first investments in the coming months, closing to new investors next May, he said. It was formed by the private equity arm of South African financial services group Sanlam <SLMJ.J> and investment group Strategy Partners and has headquarters in Cape Town and Mauritius. The fund has a projected 10-year lifespan. PHILANTHROPY FOR PROFIT "Two major drivers brought the fund into being: the business investment opportunity around agriculture in Africa (and) knowing that if this fund can make contributions to make the industry competitive, it will proportionally stimulate the economies in which we operate," Marais said. He said the fund planned to work with local businesses. "The idea is very much to partner local entrepreneurs, to play a role in developing the local economies," he said. "We're particularly inviting entrepreneurs that are running businesses that have survived the first couple of years and so have a track record, and are ready to move to the next level ... to build up their business," he said. Agri-Vie's investors include state-owned entities like South Africa's Development Bank of Southern Africa and Industrial Development Corp, and private entities like the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, started in 1930 by the breakfast cereal pioneer. "Both these (groups) have recognised that the investment model holds as an alternative to aid money," Marais said. But he added Agri-Vie's investors also included "corporates with a strong profit profile. They expect a marketrelated return from the fund. There is no soft money." (Editing by Pascal Fletcher; editing by Elaine Hardcastle) UPDATE 1-Thorntons bucks downturn with 19.6 pct profit rise Wed Sep 10, 2008 LONDON, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Chocolate retailer Thorntons (THT.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) reported a better than expected 19.6 percent increase in annual profit, shrugging off the impact of a consumer downturn, and said trading had started well in the new fiscal year. The 97-year-old chocolate maker, which has around 400 shops, said store and brand modernisation had lured customers into spending more as well as product innovation and the launch of more foodie-style shops and chocolate bars. Thorntons, which last month opened its first new concept store in Kingston, on the outskirts of London, reported pretax profit of 8.5 million pounds for the 52 weeks to June 28 on revenue 11 percent higher at 208.1 million pounds. A poll of analysts by Reuters Estimates forecast Thorntons would deliver annual pretax profit of 8.2 million pounds. Thorntons' stock has underperformed the FTSE All Share food and drug retailers index .FTASX5330 by 22 percent since the turn of the year. However, the company's own stores delivered 4.6 percent growth, while its franchises grew by 14.5 percent. Thorntons' commercial business grew by over a third, generating around a quarter of group sales and its direct business, which includes consumer, online and corporate businesses delivered 26.6 percent of growth, the group said. COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 29 British retailers are struggling as indebted shoppers cut back on spending in the face of higher energy bills and a falling housing market. Davies admitted the general economic outlook was "uncertain" for the year ahead but added that he was "confident about Thorntons' progress and prospects" as many shoppers trade down and buy a box of chocolates for a night in, instead of splashing out on a meal at a restaurant. (Reporting by Rhys Jones; Editing by Louise Ireland) UPDATE 1-Callebaut CEO says chocolate prices to rise-paper Tue Sep 9, 2008 Market News ZURICH, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Barry Callebaut (BARN.S: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which makes chocolate for groups such as Nestle (NESN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Cadbury (CBRY.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), told a Swiss newspaper the price of chocolate products will rise by up to 18 percent to offset spiralling costs. "In the case of a 100 gramme chocolate bar, raw material costs account for around 25 percent. Cocoa makes up around half of this. The cocoa price has doubled in the last 12 months," Chief Executive Patrick de Maeseneire told the Handelszeitung. "That means that the market price of a bar would have to rise around 12 percent. Then there are also higher packaging, energy and transport costs. The market prices of chocolate products will therefore have to rise 15 to 18 percent," de Maeseneire said in the interview released to media on Tuesday, one day ahead of publication. The firm, which is the world's largest chocolate maker, believes it can pass on the higher costs to its industrial customers, de Maeseneire said. Barry Callebaut is able to draw up new contracts for customers based on current or future raw material prices. But de Maeseneire said it was difficult to tell what impact price hikes of 18 percent would have. If demand falls then our customers will order less from us," he said. The group currently produces around 15 percent of the chocolate of larger companies, de Maeseneire said, but he sees the potential to produce around a third of their sales. Barry Callebaut is sticking to its four-year targets over the 2007/08-2010/11 period, but de Maeseneire cautioned profit will be lower in the first two years as the group makes investments. The group, which provides the food manufacturing industry with cocoa and chocolate products, coatings and cocoa powders, is aiming for average annual top-line growth of 9 to 11 percent, EBIT growth of 11 to 14 percent and net profit growth of 13 to 16 percent. (Reporting by Katie Reid; editing by Elaine Hardcastle) Cocoa farmer's lives improve - NPP NEW. Watch live television from Ghana plus the latest Ghanaian movies plus OBE TV. Takoradi Sept. 10, GNA - Nana Owusu-Ankomah, the Western Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) on Wednesday said government has demonstrated practically that it is willing to make the lives of cocoa farmers better. "The recent increase in the price of cocoa from 75 Ghana cedis to 120 Ghana cedis indicates that we have a listening government," he said. The NPP regional chairman was interacting with the media in Takoradi on the recent increase in the cocoa price. He pointed out that when President J. A. Kufour was campaigning in 2000, he stressed that if cocoa farmers voted him into power, he will make sure that their lives were better. "Now the lives of cocoa farmers are much better than before," he said. COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 30 Nana Owusu-Ankomah said in the 1990's proceeds of cocoa were not paid early to farmers but now, they are being paid on time. He said payment of cocoa bonuses for the farmers were not encouraging during those period "however, the payment of cocoa bonuses have been encouraging as government has increased it nine times since it assumed office". He noted that payments to cocoa farmers have become regular since then, and that thi s can be attributed to the economic management of government. He added that due to the mass cocoa spraying exercise and the introduction of high-tech fertilizers, cocoa farmers have been encouraged to produce more. Nana OwusuAnkomah said it is possible that in 2009, fertilizer would be given free of charge to farmers. "On behalf of the cocoa farmers in the Western Region, we are congratulating government for making the lives of cocoa farmers much better," he said. He said the region in it holistic form is benefiting from the cocoa industry, adding that "we are asking all cocoa farming community to make sure that the NPP is voted into power so that the cocoa industry will grow". The ethical cocoa confusion Foodanddrinkeurope.com 11-Feb-2008 - While most consumers agree that ethically-sourced cocoa is no bad thing, an ever increasing number of different schemes risks muddying the issue and puzzling chocolate fans. In this day and age Western chocolate buyers are increasingly aware of the effect our global food chain has on third world countries. According to a 2007 UK Department for Environment, Rural and Food affairs (DEFRA), more than half of consumers in the country said that they try not to buy products whose ethics they disagree with. A slightly smaller proportion, 45 per cent, said they would be prepared to pay more for ethically-sourced food. At first glance, companies seem to be taking these concerns on board. In the past fortnight alone, Cadbury announced its own Cocoa Partnership in Ghana, and Nestle and Mars signed up to the Good Inside Cocoa Programme, established by Utz Certified. However, when added to Blommer's Cote d'Ivoire alliance of Farmers, Olam International and Blommer Chocolate (CIFOB), Cargill and Barry Callebaut's membership to the World Cocoa Foundation, as well as various Fairtrade certified companies such as Divine, the issue starts to become a lot more complicated. While it would be churlish to suggest that programmes which in some way protect cocoa farmers are a bad idea, the more schemes there are around the globe, the harder it is to work out what exactly each one does. Many consumers are aware, for example, that companies using the Fairtrade logo must pay the producer the minimum wage in that country or more. But Cadbury, for example, has no such base level set in place, arguing instead that Ghanaian cocoa sells at 10 per cent above the market rate because of its high quality - a level above the Fairtrade floor. What happens, though, if one year the crop value falls because of, say, poor weather conditions? Another pertinent issue, one rarely explored, is who regulates these programmes, as Fairtrade is the only independently audited ethical trading scheme, according to Divine. However, even if the generous-minded of us are willing to believe that these schemes often do good, as chocolate multinationals are not always as villainous as often thought, how are consumers meant to spot which products are ethical and which are not? (Incidentally, the issue of big business and profit is almost irrelevant here; firms such as Cadbury have never denied that schemes such as the Cocoa Partnership in Ghana were established to help boost activity, despite what many disgruntled bloggers think). While consumers can read countless company statements and articles on the subject, what really screams "I'm ethical!" is a label. COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 31 Fairtrade has one, that nifty green and blue symbol that features on the side of food packets, but many of the others do not. Cadbury is currently 'working on communications', while the Utz Certified Good Inside Cocoa Programme label is voluntary. Therefore Mars and Nestle are under no obligation to state whether the cocoa used in their products comes from farmers protected by Utz or not. Do they expect consumers just to take their word for it? In short, rather than confusing the issue further in future, industry players must therefore work with each other, as well as the farmers, to not only come up with a more consistent standard of how cocoa suppliers are treated, but also a fair way of indicating the supply chain to consumers. It would be desperately sad if the Western consumer started to take a jaded and cynical view of the issue of ethical cocoa supply, and if a day comes when nobody has faith in how companies treat the suppliers, it will not only be the farmers who lose out. Ivory Coast says will overhaul cocoa sector Thu 11 Sep 2008 By Ange Aboa ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Ivory Coast will replace all bodies administering its key cocoa sector by September 15 with a temporary body until widespread reforms are complete, a government official said on Thursday. The West African country is the world's biggest cocoa producer, but as world prices have risen to their highest in decades, the industry has been beset by allegations of corruption, and a strike which threatens to disrupt exports. "The new set-up will be one organisation that takes over the jobs of ... all the bodies that were born from the 2000 reform," Marie-Louise Acquah, natural resources advisor to the prime minister, told Reuters. Cocoa is a pillar of the Ivorian economy. It represents 20 percent of its GDP and 40 percent of export income, and has become a major issue in an election year. A much-delayed presidential vote, intended to draw a line under a 2002/03 war that split the country, is due on November 30, but analysts say it is likely to be further postponed. Acquah gave no details on the likely form of the new administrative body, but said it would mean lower taxes on cocoa, and greater transparency. "We should have a single tax of 4.5 CFA francs per kg instead of the multiple taxes that we have now," she said, putting current taxes at 10.65 CFA francs per kg. The temporary administrative structure, which will replace the five bodies that currently govern the sector, will operate for at least one season while longer-term reforms are carried out, Acquah said. "We must find a broader solution which allows for greater visibility in the sector," she said. Exporters gave the proposed reforms a cautious welcome, though stressed that several pledges of reorganisation had been made in the past and not come to fruition. "I think the merging of the structures into one would reduce the delay in securing export documents. I think this would simplify things," said one exporter. Just weeks ahead of the new cocoa season, registration of cocoa intended for export has been paralysed by a strike at the Coffee and Cocoa Bourse BCC marketing body over unpaid salaries, and by in-fighting for senior positions vacated by executives arrested for corruption. President Laurent Gbagbo ordered the investigation into misuse of money at the BCC, and has promised jail terms for those found guilty. The Ivorian cocoa sector has been plagued by corruption since it was liberalised in 2000, officials and diplomats say. COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 32 Nestle Sees H2 Growth Slowing as Pricing Eases Source: Reuters 10/09/2008 London, Sept 10 - Nestle, the world's largest food company, said its growth will slow in the second-half as it relies less on price rises to drive overall sales and that it is looking towards more stable commodity costs in 2009. "Annual growth will taper, starting in the third-quarter and particularly in the fourth-quarter," the Swiss group's group chief financial officer James Singh said in an interview on Wednesday. This follows Nestle's high price rises put through in Q4 2007. Callebaut CEO Says Chocolate Prices to Rise Source: Reuters 10/09/2008 Zurich, Sept 9 - Barry Callebaut, which makes chocolate for groups such as Nestle and Cadbury, told a Swiss newspaper the price of chocolate products will rise by up to 18 percent to offset spiralling costs. "In the case of a 100 gramme chocolate bar, raw material costs account for around 25 percent. Cocoa makes up around half of this. The cocoa price has doubled in the last 12 months," Chief Executive Patrick de Maeseneire told the Handelszeitung. "That means that the market price of a bar would have to rise around 12 percent. Then there are also higher packaging, energy and transport costs. The market prices of chocolate products will therefore have to rise 15 to 18 percent," de Maeseneire said in the interview released to media on Tuesday, one day ahead of publication. The firm, which is the world's largest chocolate maker, believes it can pass on the higher costs to its industrial customers, de Maeseneire said. Barry Callebaut is able to draw up new contracts for customers based on current or future raw material prices. But de Maeseneire said it was difficult to tell what impact price hikes of 18 percent would have. "If demand falls then our customers will order less from us," he said. The group currently produces around 15 percent of the chocolate of larger companies, de Maeseneire said, but he sees the potential to produce around a third of their sales. Barry Callebaut is sticking to its four-year targets over the 2007/08-2010/11 period, but de Maeseneire cautioned profit will be lower in the first two years as the group makes investments. The group, which provides the food manufacturing industry with cocoa and chocolate products, coatings and cocoa powders, is aiming for average annual top-line growth of 9 to 11 percent, EBIT growth of 11 to 14 percent and net profit growth of 13 to 16 percent. Japan: Meiji Dairies and Meiji Seika in Merger Talks Source: Reuters Tokyo, Sept 10 - Japanese dairy goods maker Meiji Dairies Corp and chocolate producer Meiji Seika are in final stages of merger talks to create a food company with over 1 trillion yen ($9.3 billion) in revenue, public broadcaster NHK said on Tuesday. The report came as Japan's food firms are struggling with rising fuel and raw materials costs and under pressure to pass them on in their prices, while they face a slowdown in consumer spending and mature market at home. Officials at both Meiji Dairies and Meiji Seika said the report was not based on something the companies announced and declined to comment further. Meiji Dairies, which has market capital of 202.1 billion yen, had revenue of 707 billion yen for the year ending in March 2008. COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 33 Meiji Seika, with market capital of 195.5 billion yen, had revenue of 404.7 billion yen for the year to March 2008. The Vevey-based maker of Nescafe coffee, KitKat chocolate bars and Maggi soup is aiming to grow 2008 underlying sales at least as fast as 2007's 7.4 percent, but Singh said it will not be in line with the 8.9 percent seen in the first half of 2008. The group sees less commodity cost-driven price rises in its second-half as "more stability" comes to markets for its key commodities such as milk, coffee, cocoa, sugar and grains. "We see a more stable commodity cost environment going into 2009," he said. The group spends around 30 billion Swiss francs on input costs, including 14 billion francs on agricultural commodities and 10 billion francs on packaging. He sees Nestle's commodity and packaging costs in 2009 rising in line with global inflation, or 2.5 to 4.0 percent, after it expects 2008 costs to rise by 2.2 billion francs or around 7.3 percent of its 30 billion franc input cost base. Although Singh describes economic conditions facing Nestle as difficult for the rest of the year, he says the group has only seen pockets of downtrading in its business, such as in frozen foods and bottled water in the United States. "There has been no widespread down trading effect on our business overall, only pockets of down trading, " he said. Promotion Oboshie launches cocoa festival Accra, Sept. 10, GNA - The first ever cocoa festival was launched in Accra on Wednesday with a call on the private sector to partner government to make it a major attraction to tourists all over the world. Mrs Oboshie Sai-Cofie, Minister of Tourism and Diasporan Relations, said if packaged well, the festival could help create jobs and generate the necessary revenues to speed up the country's socio-economic development. The maiden festival scheduled for September 20 at Mampong Akuapem, where the first cocoa trees were planted, is being organised by FM24 Company, managers of Tetteh Quarshie farms and is expected to be an annual event. It is estimated that about 200 tourists visit the Tetteh Quarhsie farm daily and an added attraction of a festival will help swell the numbers. Mrs Sai-Cofie, who recounted the benefits of the cocoa industry to the economy, entreated all to consume cocoa products to take advantage of its health attributes. She called on all, especially corporate organisations, to support the cocoa festival to portray the uniqueness of cocoa in the Ghanaian culture. Mrs Ursula Owusu, Corporate Affairs Manager of Zain Telecommunications (ZT), sponsors of the festival, said cocoa was a passion of Africa and that ZT believed in supporting passions of Africa. She said ZT would by close of the year launch innovative products to serve the telecommunication needs of Ghanaians. As a toast of what to expect on the day of celebrations, a rendition of Ghanaian cultural display was performed by Abibigroma Drama Group of the University of Ghana. COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 34 Consumers’ moods can inform flavour development, says analyst By staff reporter Foodanddrinkeurope.com 09-Sep-2008 - Food manufacturers are well aware that, in order for a product to succeed, they must understand consumer wants and needs. But according to a new paper from Frost & Sullivan, they need to delve even deeper into the link between flavours and emotions. The global flavours market was been valued at some US$18bn in 2006 (Business Insights). Keeping tabs on fickle market trends is a major occupation for flavour houses; but as well as tracking trends, they also need to predict the way the market will go so as to feed ideas into their customers’ product development and help them get ahead of the competition. “Emotions are playing a vital role in flavour choice,” wrote analyst Frost & Sullivan analyst Sridhar Gajendran. “Only good taste can’t decide the flavour preference, but it has to appeal to the mood the consumer wants to feel.” Some examples of flavours that are intended to tap into certain emotions include curry for thrilling sensations, chocolate for pleasure, and champagne for luxury. Comfort food The observation that consumers sometimes want reassurance from food flavours has also been identified by Datamonitor, which listed nostalgia and exotic flavours as two major trends for 2008. But while Datamonitor said retro flavours conjuge up memories of ‘the good old days’, Frost & Sullivan makes the connection with ‘emotional wellness’. The new paper cites traditional flavours that are associated with naturalness and good health as examples of this – such as blueberry, grape, aloe vera, and citrus flavours. The shock of the new Frost & Sullivan agrees that the emotional pull exists in parallel with a desire for new, exciting, and exotic flavours – and products with single flavours may no longer be enough to grab consumers’ attention. “It’s not just the basic chocolate or vanilla flavours anymore. Now, it’s the combination of white chocolate with cranberries or Tahitian vanilla with honey.” But Gajendran observes that neither consumers nor industry “seem quite satisfied” with what is on offer by way of flavours at present. “The search for novel and exotic flavours seems to be a perpetual one”. Indeed, this observation is in keeping with the top ten flavours of the season published by flavour firm McCormick. This makes use of some unusual combinations that are likely to intrigue and give rise to some unusual taste sensations on the tongue. For instance, McCormick has teamed up clove with green apple, sea salt with smoked tea, ginger and pistachio, and wasabi and maple. Dining out on a trend Frost & Sullivan notes that more and more people are eating out in restaurants, where they are experiencing exotic foods and dishes from different cultures. The expansion of flavour horizons that comes with this has a trickle-down effect on manufactured foods, since consumers would like “The flavour manufacturers will consider this trend to develop the products that will match these occasions,” said Gajendran. COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 35 Expo boosts imports of African products By Zhao Shijun (China Daily) Updated: 2008-08-28 Feng Hongzhang, director of the Trade Development Bureau of MOFCOM, opens the First African Commodities Exhibition. To encourage more African commodities to enter the Chinese market and promote the healthy development of Sino-African trade and business ties, the 2nd African Commodities Exhibition will be held at Xiamen International Conference & Exhibition Center from September 8 to 11. Sponsored by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) and organized by the Trade Development Bureau of the ministry, it will run concurrently with the China International Fair for Investment and Trade (CIFIT), the nation's largest international investment fair in the coastal city of Xiamen in Fujian province that begins every September 8. To be better prepared for the event, the organizers took a series of outreach measures months before the expo. The Trade Development Bureau kept close contacts with the African embassies in China to convey information on the event. In addition, the organizers have sent two promotional delegations to countries including Egypt, Tunisia, South Africa, Zambia and Nigeria to have direct talks with local officials and business communities. Minister of Commerce Chen Deming has in particular written to his counterparts of African countries and asked them to pay special attention to this exhibition and encourage their enterprises to participate in the expo. On July 29, the Department of Western Asian and African Affairs and the Trade Development Bureau of MOFCOM jointly organized a meeting for the expo in Beijing. Diplomats from embassies of Mauritius, Madagascar, Kenya, Rwanda, Tunisia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Ethiopia, Sudan, Zambia, South Africa, Uganda and Nigeria attended. To attract more purchasers, the organizers have promoted the expo through the Chinese media. In addition, the organizers will also arrange large domestic trading companies, chain stores and supermarkets attending the CIFIT to participate in the 2nd African Commodities Exhibition 2008. Thanks to these efforts, the 2nd African Commodities Exhibition 2008 is expected to draw a large number of exhibitors. To date, nearly 200 companies from 22 countries including Uganda, Mali, Gabon, Ethiopia, Sudan, Tanzania, Egypt, Tunisia, Mauritius, Zambia, Kenya, Morocco, Cameroon, Chad, Lesotho, Niger, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania and Mozambique have registered to attend. African products such as amethysts, citrine, emeralds, malachite, wood carving and other handicrafts, African garments, gum acacia, palm oil, olive oil, cocoa and cocoa products will be on display in the 3,500 sq m exhibition. To further promote the exchanges between Chinese and African businesses and help African firms expand their exports to and operations in China, meetings including the Introduction to the Zimbabwe market will be held at the expo. In addition, information on African enterprises and products will be on the official website of the CIFIT. COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 36 Fairtrade Chocolate Promotional Advent Calendars Launched PR Web (press release), WA - 9 Sep 2008 Redbows, a leading UK promotional gifts supplier has extended its popular range of promotional advent calendars by adding new Fairtrade Chocolates, environmentally friendly packaging and extended design formats. Prestatyn, Denbighshire (PRWEB) September 9, 2008 -- Redbows, a leading UK promotional gifts supplier has extended its popular range ofpromotional advent calendars by adding new Fairtrade Chocolates, environmentally friendlypackaging and extended design formats. The new promotional advent calendars from Redbows deliver the latest in promotional advertising. The range includes both desktop and wall hanging formats in both landscape and portrait A4 sizes. Calendars can be either part of fully personalised. The part-personalised models include a standard sized area for a client imprint within an off-the-shelf design. Fully personalised advent calendars allow clients to supply their own artwork for a complete four-color print design. The range also provides clients with the opportunity to custom design the message behind each window and the logo molded into the chocolates. The chocolates behind the typical 24 or 25-day format calendar can be Belgian, UK-manufactured and Fairtrade varieties. Postal cartons are available for these promotional items as an option and can be made from 100 recycled materials, making the advent calendars one of the greenest and most ethically-orientated promotional products available this Christmas. For clients wanting a unique shape, Redbows offers a Christmas-tree design for the twelve days of Christmas and a premium advent available with a number of design templates including: phone, house, car, truck and hamburgers. Further custom-shapes are available with a tooling charge. "Promotional advent calendars are a great treat for clients and employees", commented Dawn Koffler, Managing Director. "Everyone loves chocolates and we know that these advent calendars generate a lot of goodwill and advertising during December and for sometime afterwards". Redbows promotional advent calendars are part of a wider promotional gifts range available from the company. Other Christmas-related products include Christmas cards, hampers, gift baskets, diaries, wall calendars and party confectionery. For more information visit the Redbows Promotional Gifts Store and view the new Advent Calendars collection. Prices are volume dependent and run from £1.79 for 5000 pieces. About Redbows Ltd - Promote Yourself Redbows Ltd is a UK-based promotional gifts supplier started in 2004 by Dawn Koffler, its owner and Managing Director. The company is a leading light within the promotions industry, differentiating itself through customer service, innovative products and investments in technologies that add value for clients. Redbows provides a range of promotional marketing services including from its in-house design studio, the complete artwork service from virtual visuals to complete brand development. Redbows products are manufactured in the UK, Europe and Far East and range from tradeshow giveaways to high-end premium corporate gifts. The company boasts an impressive client base including organisations from across the UK and Europe, from FTSE-100 companies and leading household brands to small clubs and charities. The company operates a corporate information website (ww w.redbows.co.uk) and ecommerce Promotional Gifts Store. Dawn Koffler is an avid internet marketer whose comments on the promotional gifts industry and marketing in general can be found on her Promotional Gifts Blog. COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 37 Labour Issues Workers at Ivory Coast's Coffee and Cocoa Bourse stepped up a strike over pay Reuters, Tuesday September 9 2008 (Adds detail from port) By Loucoumane Coulibaly and Ange Aboa ABIDJAN, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Workers at Ivory Coast's Coffee and Cocoa Bourse stepped up a strike over pay arrears on Tuesday, halting the minimum service they have been providing at the marketing body, a union representative said. "We stopped minimum service this morning, the single (export) office in San Pedro is closed. The single office in Abidjan is closed. The server is shut down. In short the system is paralysed," Alain Koudou of the SYNASGFICC cocoa sector union told Reuters. A Reuters reporter said the registration offices at both the BCC headquarters in town and Abidjan port were locked and there appeared to be nobody inside. Ivory Coast is the world's top cocoa grower. Union members said if any officials were working, they could only be processing export registrations already submitted on Monday, because the systems were not operating on Tuesday. Exporters confirmed on Tuesday that the cocoa export registration system was not working properly but said, for now, the impact was negligible due to low volumes. The industry is currently focussing on the 2008/09 season, which starts Oct. 1. Benchmark cocoa prices in New York hit a 28-year high of over $3,000 per tonne in July, partly on fears about the quality of the Ivorian harvest, but have since slipped to around $2,600 per tonne. Exporters estimated that around 7,000 tonnes of beans were delivered to Ivory Coast's two ports in the week of Sept. 1-7. Workers at the BCC say they are owed three months of back pay because they have not been paid since top officials at the industry body were removed and arrested nearly three months ago in an anti-graft operation launched by President Laurent Gbagbo. The crisis over pay has been compounded by wrangling within the BCC, where there is a power struggle between administrators over who is legally in charge following the arrests. "It is not that the BCC is broke," said Koudou. "The coffers are full. It is a problem of leadership and who can actually sign the cheques." SHUT-DOWN WARNING Union members began strike action last week, but exporters said they had seen little impact on export registrations during a lull in activities before the new main crop season starts. But fears have been growing that turmoil within the BCC and other industry bodies could cause disruption when the new season launches and the volumes of cocoa start rising. "The workers at the single office (at the port) said that they were going to shut down the registration system and they did so this morning," said the director of one Abidjan-based cocoa exporting company. "We can no longer register but it's not too serious as there is not very much activity aside from the grinding," he added. While some other cocoa bodies were functioning at the port, officials say the strike at the has paralysed the system. "Cocoa can no longer be exported because the marketing process is blocked by the BCC," said Jean Baptiste Essan, who works at the FRC regulatory body at the port. The cocoa strike comes at a politically sensitive time as the country is due to hold presidential elections on Nov. 30 to draw a line under a crisis sparked by a brief 2002-2003 war which split the country. COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 38 Although the authorities say the long-awaited polls can still be held on time, election experts say this is unlikely as preparations are far behind schedule. (Additional reporting and writing by David Lewis; Editing by Alistair Thomson/Peter Blackburn) Nigeria: BAT Reiterates Support for Child Rights, Agric Devt This Day (Lagos) 9 September 2008 Akinwale Akintunde Lagos Child rights, human development and agricultural revolution form the cardinal objectives of the social corporate responsibility and partnership agreement with tobacco farmers, the British American Tobacco (BAT) group has said. Their claim is in tandem with the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child, International Convention against Child Labour and the African Union Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, which frown at the use of school-age children for forced labour. Managing Director, British American Tobacco Iseyin Agronomy (BATIA) Mr. Olugbenga Ibikunle, disclosed this to THISDAY last week, and noted that this has influenced the firm to support child rights and promote child labour policy in the country. According to him, BAT has developed its own scholarship scheme, also creating awareness on child rights and promoting child labour policy in line with international conventions, practices and treaties, which the UN member states endorsed. He added, "we support tobacco farmers, promote agricultural development and provide medium-term loan for those farmers that partner with BAT and its subsidiaries. We train our partners and provide them with information that can boost production. We also create awareness on the need to educate their children." He debunked recent allegations of forced and child labour, which a non-governmental organisation levelled against the tobacco firm, describing it as an attempt to rubbish BAT's image both nationally and globally. General Secretary, Nigerian Independent Tobacco Growers Association (NITA), Mr. Samuel Adebayo Ojoogun, while speaking with THISDAY, also dismissed the allegation, explaining that the use of under-aged children in tobacco plantation did not exist in Irawo community in Atisbo Local Government Area (LGA) of Oyo State. He disclosed that BAT does not own any tobacco plantation in the area, and agreed that NITA members were in partnership with the firm in some strategic areas, which he claimed, had helped the farmers improve their production and generate more revenue. Ojoogun said, "the allegation is far from the truth. None of the farmers will want his children to become tobacco farmer in future. I have seen the publication where the children portrayed were half naked. No farmer would allow his children farm on a small scale. We are working hard to make them lives better, and BAT too is making our job easier." "Our farmers take the education of their children very seriously. That is why we support both primary and secondary schools in all our villages. All farmers will want to educate their children. We also have our own scholarship scheme just to encourage the students to compete, to encourage human capital development. This is our passion for education," he said. Contrary to publications in some sections of the media, the firm also insisted that it does not own any tobacco farm in the country. But Ibikunle said the firm partners with some tobacco farmers under auspices of NITA, mainly in the area of funding and provision of improved seeds. He explained that BATIA is a subsidiary of BAT responsible for tobacco growing, and according to him, it also educates tobacco farmers on child labour policy in line with the agreement the firm signed with tobacco growers association. COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 39 Ibikunle said the firm "is averse to the idea of child and forced labour, and this is part of our policies in our dealing with independent tobacco farmers in the country." He added that the firm did not embrace using under-age children or school children for forced labour in the tobacco farms, saying that "this constitutes a part of our understanding with the independent tobacco growers or farmers." Ibikunle said "if a BAT tobacco farmer is using underage children for forced labour, we cannot escape accusations. This is why we specify in our partnership agreement that tobacco farmers should not use underage labour hands". "We do not just write it down. We have signed the agreement. We take time to educate them on what we call our Child Labour Policy to show our aversion to the use of underage or school age students in the farms," he stated. But Ibikunle acknowledged what he called child work, which he claimed is a practice in African setting. "This is an African setting. A child will not sit down in the house while his father is sorting tobacco. It behoves the child to assist his father", he said. "As the farmer goes to farm to water his crops, his child may assist in watering the crops. Apart from the tobacco plantation, some of these farmers also have small plots where they grow food crops. This is normal because that is how we grew up to learn about farming," he added. Asked about how independent tobacco growers are, Ibikunle said tobacco growers are completely independent because they are operating without undue interference from the management of BAT and BATIA. He added, "they take key decisions on their own without interference and external involvement. The farmers decide to grow or not to grow. They can decide to sell to BAT or to our competitors as well". Research and Development Upgrade Cocoa research Centre’ Express Buzz, India - 12 Sep 2008 KOCHI: The national steering committee on cocoa which met at Kottayam has recommended upgradation of the Cocoa Research Centre in Kerala Agriculture University to a nationallevel centre. Kerala State Horticulture Mission director will mediate between the Department and KAU and submit a project proposal to the Union Agriculture Ministry. The committee also directed the development departments and cocoa industry to go in for tripartite agreement with farming community. COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 40 Consumer Trends in the Flavor Industry - Study Flexnews Source: Frost & Sullivan 08/09/2008 5 September 2008 - All new flavor developments in the industry are driven by consumer insights. The ongoing studies on flavor trends and engaging themselves with the end consumers will provide the manufacturers an edge to retain and grow the market share. Generally the flavor trends are cyclical in nature. The growing significance of ethical flavors and health centric flavors is a lucid example of this fact. In order to sustain in the highly dynamic flavors market, companies are focusing on improving the technologies that enhances shelf life, flavor potency and physical characteristics of flavor formulations to support the modern trends. The combination of trends and technological innovations will improve the end product, then customer satisfaction and sales growth that effects in market share. Appealing the consumers Flavors have advanced in many ways. It's not just the basic chocolate or vanilla flavors anymore. Now, it's the combination of white chocolate with cranberries or Tahitian vanilla with honey. However, neither the industry nor the consumers seem to be quite satisfied with the existing range of flavors. The search of novel and exotic flavors seems to be a perpetual one. Emotions are playing a vital role in flavor choices. Only good taste can't decide the flavor preference, but it has to appeal to the mood the consumer wants to feel. Marketers are trying to link the flavors into emotions like curry for thrilling, chocolate for pleasure, champagne for luxury and more. Consumer palates have become more sophisticated resulting in transforming flavor blending to become more advanced and consumer centric. Appealing to the flavor demands of the consumer is a challenge that exists in the present scenario. Majority of the flavor companies are taking efforts towards better understanding their consumers. The manufacturers have realized that understanding consumer preference is the key to success in the market. Consequently majority of the companies are extensively engaged in doing their own internal research, surveys and consumer panels. They do a lot of flavor tracking from trade shows and exhibitions. Also they get specialized customer requests for creating new flavor blends. They do track the flavors currently selling in the market place and combine all of these with their long-term experience to predict future market and flavor trends. Flavor trends Consumers are increasingly adventurous in their flavor preferences and involved in more flavor experiences. This resulted in the success of the following trends. Exotic flavors Exotic and unusual combinations of flavors are creating waves in the market and this is one of the major trends in the market for this year. This trend is driven by customer willingness to try new and unique combinations of flavors. It's a challenging task for the flavor companies to understand their preferences and give them the right flavors at right time. As per the flavor forecast revealed by McCormick, the global seasonings and flavor company, the top ten flavors of the season are Clove and Green Apple, Thyme and Tangerine, Tellicherry Black Pepper and Berry, Sea Salt and Smoked Tea, Lavender and Honey, Crystallized Ginger and Salted Pistachio, Cumin and Apricot, Toasted Mustard and Fennel Seeds, Wasabi and Maple and Caramelized Garlic and Riesling Vinegar. Ethnic flavors Ethnic foods trend continues to gain popularity in United States. Sauces, condiments & dressings are leading the U.S ethnic foods category. Under this category, Chinese and other Asian ethnic foods are leading the way. The modern consumers have started buying more ethical or socially responsible grocery items. This trend is likely to boost the innovation of many ethnic flavors in the market. Health and Wellness Baby Boomers are creating a huge opportunity for the health and wellness based food products as they are motivated to stay healthy and young. Traditional flavors are managing to retain their position based on the comfort mega-trend. Consumers seek flavors with positive and often nostalgic associations that increase COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 41 emotional wellness. These types of healthy foods are necessary for young adults, who are living highly distressed lifestyles. The industry experts have rated 'flavors from natural ingredients' as the most important trend within health over the next 5 years. This fact will encourage the natural flavors manufacturers to provide more varieties and capture the prevailing opportunity. Blueberry, Grape, Aloe Vera, Pine Bark, Soy and citrus based flavors are the commonly used health flavors in the market. Flavor choices Flavor choices are primarily influenced by occasion. The trend of Eating out has grown in the recent times and it is the key in exposing consumers to new flavors. The fact behind this trend is that the consumers are desired to taste new, experience new, exotic foods from a fine dining restaurant to a 'grab and go' kind of fast food outlet and even a convenience store. Eating out is becoming more established in US and forecasts are saying that there will be an increase of 8.8 billion extra out of home occasions and 7 billion snacking occasions relative to 2003 trend. There will be an extra 3 billion foodservice (profit sector) transactions in 2009 relative to 2004 in the US. The flavor manufacturers will consider this trend to develop the products that will match these occasions. Flavor choices can also be influenced by life stage. Children's flavor preferences are generically influenced by parents. This trend is expected to change as the modern age children are more exposed to modern food trends and they can take their purchase decisions on their own. They are likely to experiment some new flavors in the future. Generally adult's preferences are influenced by cultural factors. Seniors are looking for more bold flavors are they are bored with the normal flavors. Conclusion The modern age consumers are venturing outside of their comfort zone and trying various new tastes and combinations. Flavor Innovations must meet the needs of consumers and deliver both value and fun. Adding new flavors in the portfolio to maintain a position one step ahead of the marketplace is a challenge all in itself. Incorporating a new flavor into a product line however, doesn't automatically ensure its success. It then must be tested with the base it will be flavoring and adjusted if necessary. It should be a continuous process of enhancing the consumer's tastes and preferences. "The critical success factor is listening to consumer demand, viewing the current trends, and anticipating the needs of the future, which could include healthy indulgences and ethnic American foods." Opportunities for cocoa powder as study shows antioxidant levels By Lindsey Partos 11-Sep-2008 Confectioners may seek to develop new formulations that use cocoa powder and baking chocolate, as new evidence suggests these two chocolate foods deliver the highest levels of the health-busting antioxidant resveratrol. In a study of 19 top selling cocoa-containing and chocolate products on the US market, scientists found transresveratrol levels were highest in cocoa powders. "This relationship suggests that both the stilbenes and the flavan-3-ols are associated with the brown cocoa particles in food formulation," report the researchers in the 30 August issue of Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Adding that the "effects of food processing on levels of the stilbenes still need to be investigated". Resveratrol is an antioxidant compound found in at least 72 species of plants, although science to date suggests that the primary dietary sources are grape and grape products, notably wine, and peanut products. Concentrations of resveratrol vary widely, even within a food source: for example, researchers have found that levels of the compound in wine tend to be higher in grapes grown in cooler climates. Antioxidants, meanwhile, are understood to prevent cellular damage by preventing the formation of free radicals, atoms that are formed when oxygen interacts with certain molecules. These free radicals can, in turn, damage DNA and pave the way towards serious illness like cancer, other diseases, and outward signs of ageing. COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 42 Over the past few years, research into cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.), has detected a source of antioxidant compounds - most notably the flavan-3-ol polyphenol class - in this raw material, processed to make one of the most popular confectionery products around the globe. For this latest study, conducted at US chocolate giant Hershey's Center for Health and Nutrition, scientists set out to further characterise the levels of trans-resveratrol and trans- piceid in a variety of cocoa-containing and chocolate foods, with the aim of relating these foods to other significant dietary sources of resveratrol, such as red wine and peanut products. They investigated cocoa-powders, unsweetened baking chocolates, dark chocolates, milk chocolates and chocolate syrups. The researchers, led by W. Jeffrey Hurst, found that cocoa powders contained the highest trans-resveratrol levels (an average of 1.85 micrograms per gram), followed by unsweetened baking chocolate (with an average of 1.24 micrograms per gram), semi-sweet chocolate chips, dark chocolate, milk chocolate and chocolate syrups. "This places cocoa powder, dark chocolate, and baking chocolate in a relatively high position for foods that contain resveratrol," report the scientists. They add that "on a per serving basis, cocoa-containing and chocolate products have less trans-resveratrol than red wine and grape juice but more than roasted peanuts". Indeed, on an equal weight basis, cocoa powder had about half as much trans-resveratrol as the average Californian red wine. Further, they concluded that amounts of trans-resveratrol, and trans-piceid, were closely correlated with the amount of non-fat cocoa solids (NFCS). NFCS, the scientists explain, is a measure of the amount of brown cocoa 'particulates' in a product, and a direct result of the product formulation in the cocoa-containing products. Source: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry Published online ahead of print, doi: 10.1021/jf801297w “Survey of the trans-Resveratrol and trans-Piceid Content of Cocoa-Containing and Chocolate Products” Authors: W.Jeffrey Hurst, J.A. Glinski, K.B. Miller, J. Apgar, M.H.Davey, D.A.Stuart Environmental Issues COCOBOD bans use of some chemicals on cocoa farms Accra, Oct. 19, Ghanadot/GNA - Given the increasing concerns of key markets about chemical residue levels in food, the Ghana Cocoa Board says it will equip all three takeover centres in Tema, Takoradi and Kumasi with appropriate testing machines to undertake residue analysis and issue appropriate certificates. Consequently, the Board has also announced a ban in the use of Endosulfan, Cocostar, Durban and Pyrinex as well as all pirimiphosmethyl-based chemicals on cocoa farms. COCOBOD said it was not responsible for the importation of any of these chemicals because they contained chlopyrifos, Fenvalerate, thionex, thiodan and callifan. "This move will reassure the market of our readiness to comply with the new regulations," Mr Isaac Osei, Chief Executive of COCOBOD said at a press conference to launch the 2007/8 main crop season. In November 2006, the Chocolate and Cocoa Association of Japan announced the rejection of about 2,000 metric tons of cocoa from Ghana because the produce was found to have contained high chemical residue. COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 43 Mr Osei explained then that the reported consignment from Ghana arrived in Japan just at the time the Asian country had raised its grading standards and had set new residual limits. He explained that while most international cocoa buyers, including those in Europe, determined the quality of the commodity by testing the beans, the Japanese were conducting their test on the shells. He called for a uniform standard of testing the commodity in order to eliminate disparities in the grading system. "The quality of Ghana cocoa continues to be acceptable to many consuming countries, but there is still room for considerable improvement. Good quality can be achieved only if the fullest attention is given to harvesting and preparation," he added. Indiana Chocolate Company Travels to Peru InsideINdianaBusiness.com Report Inside INdiana Business (press release), IN – 11 October 2008 Representatives from Indianapolis-based Endangered Species Chocolate are in Peru visiting cocoa farmers to ensure ethical and sustainable farming practices. They started the trip with a news conference to show how organic chocolate is marketed in the U.S. The company is also observing the full process, from cocoa pods being cut from trees to cocoa beans being dried and fermented. Endangered Species Chocolate began sourcing organic cocoa from Naranjillo Cooperative during the second quarter of 2008. Source: Inside INdiana Business PREVIEW: This Weekend on Inside INdiana Business INDIANAPOLIS – Endangered Species Chocolate representatives are in Peru visiting cocoa farmers in order to ensure ethical and sustainable farming practices. The company began sourcing organic cocoa from Naranjillo Cooperative during the second quarter of 2008. Mark Waddell, sales manager and former humanitarian project manager, reports that “the cooperative leaders are being very transparent.” Upon the Endangered Species Chocolate team’s arrival, their hosts in Peru held a press conference to show how organic chocolate is marketed in the United States. Late August and September mark the end of the main harvesting season for the cocoa crops. Endangered Species Chocolate is observing the full process, from cocoa pods being cut from trees to cocoa beans being dried and fermented. Chocolate made with Peruvian cocoa tends to be fruity due to the other plants surrounding the cocoa trees in the forest. Cocoa trees thrive under the natural shade of the forest, and in Peru you’ll find citrus, banana, papaya and pineapple trees surrounding them. Cocoa trees also share the forest with birds, small pigs and monkeys. “The flavor profile of the Peruvian cacao is a fantastic match for our new Organic Health products,” says Wayne Zink, CEO of Endangered Species Chocolate. “We are excited to be on-the-ground to see first-hand the crop that is gathered from the Naranjillo Cooperative.” The Naranjillo Cooperative has approximately 3,000 farmers harvesting cocoa and coffee. Strict laws in Peru keep child labor away from cocoa farms, making the farming age range from 20 to 85. Endangered Species Chocolate had the opportunity to interview the Cooperative president, Jose Majia, in April. When asked what the biggest challenges are in the cocoa industry, he said, “It is very competitive. Peru has struggled to grow globally. Many of our farmers are young and need to be educated on fermentation, bedding, compost and canopy.” Naranjillo Cooperative achieved its organic certification in 2003. According to Majia, the switch to organic came about because the Cooperative can sell the cocoa for a premium which is split between three educational programs for farmers and their families and given in cash to farmers. Source: Endangered Species Chocolate COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 44 Others Mobile phones to tell consumers what to eat By Sarah Hills Foodanddrinkeurope.com 09-Sep-2008 - A new mobile phone service which sends out customized meal suggestions at the time of purchase could also encourage people to buy foods such as those high in fiber or Omega-3, according to industry commentators. The WebDiet smartphone-based service, to be rolled out this year, offers dietary recommendations sent throughout the day to suit the users' diet goals, such as low carb, low sodium, vegetarian or kosher, taking into account what they've already eaten. Ewa Hudson, health and wellness industry manager, Euromonitor International, told FoodNavigator-USA.com: “I think this would work but it would have to be quite personalized and customized because it is very specific information that people are looking for. “There is a big drive for heart health and brain health foods and there is a big interest in weight management at the same time.” She said that, depending on people’s needs, it could tell them if they have had enough fiber or Omega-3, as well as how many calories of fat they could consume whilst staying within the recommendations of their diet plan. Hudson added: “Then some people would go and buy these products to consume the additional elements they are short of.” The development is the latest in several attempts to use technology to inform consumers about diet. Weight Watchers has just announced the launch of its own mobile service. It offers online subscribers “free access to the same weight loss planning and tracking tools that help them stay on track, from any location, at anytime on a supported mobile device”. Another innovative step was the introduction of a camera-phone by Canadian company MyFoodPhone. This enabled individuals to take pictures of their food and receive feedback on their choices from nutrition coaches and advisors It was also reported today that food packaging could be embedded with computer chips that instantly link mobile phones to an on-line sustainable food guide, according to the BBC. The guides would help consumers make ethical and ecological decisions about what they eat, food policy expert Professor Tim Lang told the British Association Science Festival. This would include issues such as how much energy and water were used to produce each calorie of food and what the impact of the food is on climate. Health concerns More Americans now believe they are overweight, according to a recent study in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. It said an estimated 25.6 percent of US adults reported being obese in 2007, compared to 23.9 percent in 2005 which is an increase of 1.7 percent. Craig Gold, CEO and co-founder of WebDiet, Inc, said: "Now with fast food popularity growing and our overweight and obesity epidemic on the rise in America, helping people to eat smarter is an urgent task. "Everyone knows our health depends largely on the choices we make in what we eat, and how much we eat. “Research proves that keeping track of what we eat is the best method of losing weight. WebDiet not only makes keeping track easy to do, we go a step further, giving users dynamic real-time meal recommendations based on their daily intake requirements and diet goals.” COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 45 Users can select from restaurant and chain-specific meals, standardized meals available by food type and grocery stores, meals made at home, or from WebDiet’s collection of custom meal healthy low-calorie alternatives. WebDiet Inc says it has multiple patent-pending technologies and its new service it to launch by invitation only this month before being rolled out. Ivory Coast advised to overhaul cocoa sector Posted by Africa News Network at Sunday, September 07, 2008 Ivory Coast's cocoa sector needs to be comprehensively modernised to deliver its full potential, the deputy chief of the World Bank for Africa, Obiageli Ezekwesili, said on September 5. "It is not going to be sufficient to change the management in the cocoa sector," she told a press conference. "The cocoa sector requires a comprehensive restructuration so that the governance issues - that have not enabled that sector to deliver the optimum of its potential - will be tackled." President Laurent Gbagbo ordered an investigation last year after allegations the cocoa and coffee marketing cooperative had embezzled more than 100 billion CFA francs (152 million euros, 224 million dollars) earmarked for the purchase of a chocolate factory in the United States. Police have arrested several top officials involved in the cocoa industry, as part of the large corruption probe since June. The Ivory Coast produces some 40 percent of the world market in cocoa and six million people are employed in the cocoa industry. "We are also working on a cocoa strategy with the government," said Ezekwesili on a two-day visit to the country. Staff from Ivory Coast's coffee and cocoa marketing body earlier launched an unlimited strike over back pay that is paralysing exports, an official for the body said. "The unionists have ransacked" the hall dealing with export operations, leading to a "paralysis" in the coffeecocoa trade, said senior official Kouassi Konan. But Konan downplayed the effect of the walkout -- launched September 2 by strikers demanding two months of unpaid salary -- on the organisation's different branches. He also said the strike had no connection with the ongoing corruption probe. National Confectioner’s Association Names Chocolate Council; Will Meet Sept. 18 In Washington, D.C. AMonline.com, WI - 9 Sep 2008 The members of National Confectioner’s Association (NCA)’s Chocolate Council were announced, including 16 representatives from chocolate using and processing companies. The following members were named to the council: Dennis Whalen, ADM Cocoa; Jerry Hagedorn, Barry Callebaut; Pierson E. Clair, Brown & Haley; David Taiclet, Fannie May Confections Brands, Inc.; Steve Genzoli, Ghirardelli Chocolate Co.; Neil Turpin, Green and Black’s USA, Inc.; Gary W. Guittard, Guittard Chocolate Co.; Mary Myers, Mars Snackfood U.S.; Louise Hilsen, Nestle USA, Inc.; Daniel Trott, Russell Stover Candies, Inc.; Neil Campbell, Seattle Chocolate Co.; Peter Blommer, The Blommer Chocolate Co.; Dan Azzara, The Hershey Co.; Patrick Huffman, The Warrell Corp.; Edmond Opler, World’s Finest Chocolate, Inc.; Patrick Zachary, Zachary Confections, Inc.; Larry Graham, National Confectioners Association; Susan Smith, National Confectioners Association; Bill Guyton, World Cocoa Foundation, ex-officio. The Chocolate Council will meet Sept. 18, in Washington, D.C. during NCA’s Washington Forum. The responsibilities of the Chocolate Council are to work with the NCA Communications, Scientific and Regulatory and Government Affairs Committees to ensure the proper focus and direction within NCA on promoting and COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 46 protecting the chocolate segment. The Council also will provide direction to NCA on matters involving the global cocoa supply chain. Food of the gods´ highlights fine food fair Source: CCTV.com 09-11-2008 09:41 Chocolate reigns supreme at London's 2008 Speciality and Fine Food Fair. It's the first time the exhibition has devoted a whole section to chocolate. But then - some call chocolate the 'food of the gods'. Organizers say demand for chocolate is rising in the UK despite increasing prices and fears of a credit crunch. Chocolate reigns supreme at London's 2008 Speciality and Fine Food Fair. Second helpings are almost a must. Organizers of the Chocolate Fair, say interest in hand-made and high-quality chocolate has never been higher. The Speciality and Fine Foods Fair at London's Olympia is in its eighth year. Chocolate reigns supreme at London's 2008 Speciality and Fine Food Fair. People have been enjoying chocolate for about a thousand years. Its roots are in South America. The Aztecs, whose empire once covered much of Central America associated cacao with Xochiquetzal, the goddess of fertility. Chocolate is still widely considered an aphrodisiac. Some serious researchers say, without a flicker of a smile, eating chocolate makes people feel loved. NBA Star Howard Asks: Got Chocolate Milk? Sept 8, 2008 -By Barry Janoff BrandWeek NBA all-star Dwight Howard, tennis star Ana Ivanovic and teen soccer star Jozy Altidore will be the latest athletes to be featured in a Got milk? Effort. The effort will differ from past campaigns in that it will promote chocolate milk as well as support milk's role in exercise recovery. The campaign will be anchored by print, Internet, a 25-city "Refuel Your School" tour to reward 25 high school athletic teams for choosing chocolate milk to refuel and rehydrate, and a "Go Pro For A Day" sweepstakes offering the opportunity to spend time with Howard, Ivanovic or Altidore or prizes including adidas' gift cards. Spend for the effort was not disclosed. "Body by milk" is part of the National Milk Mustache "Got milk?" campaign, managed by the Milk Processor Education Program, Washington. The tag, "Got milk?" was created for the California Milk Processor Board by Lowe, Chicago, and is licensed by the national milk processor and dairy producer groups. According to MPEP, "Scientists have evaluated chocolate milk as a post-exercise drink and have identified several reasons why it may be an effective recovery aid: chocolate milk contains a combination of carbohydrates and protein to help replenish exhausted muscles after exercise, it provides fluids to assist with rehydration and it contains 'electrolytes' such as potassium and other minerals like calcium that are lost in sweat." COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 47 Howard, who plays for the NBA's Orlando Magic and was a member of the gold medal winning U.S. national basketball team at the Summer Olympics in Beijing, unveiled his "Body by milk" ad, complete with the traditional milk mustache, late last week at his alma mater, Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy, Atlanta, where his dad, Dwight Sr., is the school's athletic director. Ivanovic was the No. 1 ranked women's tennis player in the world prior to her opening round loss at the U.S. Open. Altidore played for the Major Soccer League's Red Bulls in New York; in June, his contract was transferred to Villarreal C.F. in Spain for about $10 million. This 2008 US Chocolate Confectionery Report Provides 2007 Year-end Market Size Data, with 2008 Estimates, 5 Years of Historical Data and Five-year Forecasts DUBLIN, Ireland, Sep 10, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/d25387/snapshots_us_choco) has announced the addition of the "Snapshots US Chocolate Confectionery 2008" report to their offering. Snapdata's Snapshots US Chocolate Confectionery 2008 provides 2007 year-end market size data, with 2008 estimates, 5 years of historical data and five-year forecasts. The Snapshots report gives an instant overview of the US chocolate confectionery market and covers chocolate candy boxes or bags greater or equal to 3.5oz, chocolate candy of size less than 3.5oz, chocolate candy of snack size, chocolate gift boxes, sugar-free diet chocolate and others. It does not include sales of cocoa and chocolate drinks. Market value is based on retail sales. The data is supplied in both graphical and tabular format for ease of interpretation and analysis. The Snapshots US Chocolate Confectionery 2008 forms part of Snapdata's Food industry coverage. Snapshots Report Overview: Executive Summary The Executive Summary within a Snapshots report outlines the main findings of the report (market size, market shares and market forecasts) Market size Market size is the measure of the total value or volume of a particular product sold in a particular length of time. In our case it is the total amount of the market covered by a title in the last whole year, for example, in UK Beer 2005, all the beer consumed in the UK in 2004. The aim of the report is to tell how much of the product was consumed in the country discussed by value and by volume. Market Segmentation Market Segmentation is a segmentation of the market by key product categories, ideally by value and volume. For example: the yoghurt market can be segmented into: drinking yoghurt, flavoured yoghurt and natural yoghurt. Market Share Market Share is the share of each competitor in the market place and can be expressed in value or volume terms. Market Share by Volume - each competitor's share of the total Market Volume Market Share by Value - each competitor's share of the total Market Value Distribution This measure of the market relates to the different distribution channels to market for each product. The distribution can include the following channels Consumer Goods example: - Supermarket - Hypermarket - Discount Store - Corner shop - Internet - Etc Socio-Economic data The key socio-economic indicators in each report will be: COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 48 - Size of population GDP - Gross Domestic Product Inflation rate Exchange rate Forecasts All market forecasts are based on statistical forecasting techniques based on historic performance (linear extrapolation of the market size, based on the five-year historical growth). These statistical tools are supplemented with qualitative parameters such as: industry expectation/opinion. Socio-economic drivers, new product development, technological advances, expected levels of market saturation etc. Please find below an explanation of general terms used throughout Snapshot reports: CAGR = compound annual growth rate. This is a formula to measure the annual growth rate of a market over a period of several years. CAGR growth rate is the constant percentage rate at which a market would have to grow, year on year, to reach its current value (y) from the value in a base year (x). Compared to average growth rate this is a more representative measure of growth. Market Value = All market values are expressed at either retail selling prices (RSP) or other measures as specified in the reports. Market Volume = All market volumes are expressed in the unit relevant to the market researched (i.e. kg, litres etc.) Further Sources In this section we include important websites such as trade bodies or trade associations relevant to the market. All sources whose data we have used in the report and who have given us permission to use their data are represented here. All secondary sources in local and global languages are scoured, from government statistics to trade magazines. As the Snapdata model is unique as a product and non-competitive to specialist publishers, the company has also been able to develop strong relationships with companies such as Gartner and ACNielsen, who provide secondary data points to cross check research. Snapdata aims for 3 to 4 data points for each table, and no secondary data point will be used without written permission from the original source, which not only verifies the quality, but also provides the integrity to use the data. Once all secondary sources have been exhausted, the language specialist researcher will then complete semi-structured telephone interviews with the major companies in the industries to cross check and verify all data available. Benefits of the Snapshots Reports The Snapdata product range is designed to save time for clients by providing an industry data overview, market size, shares and forecasts; verified with full sourcing. Easy to search, quick to access, and clear and concise to use: Snapdata reports can save 40% of resources in those early stages of a project. Sometimes just a report from the Snapshots Series is all that is required for an internal client's first request. But when the project develops, the reports also help your internal research team prepare a fuller picture for their end-users utilizing the further sources provided in each report for industry drivers and analytical information, enabling them to provide a more detailed document based on solid figures but tailored to the end-users' requests. Key Topics Covered: Page 3 - Snapshots Executive Summary Page 4 - Category Definitions Page 5 - Market Size by Value (2003-2007) Page 6 - Market Segmentation by Value Page 7 - Market Shares by Value Page 9 - Company Details (Company Websites) COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 49 Page 10 - Distribution Channels by Value Page 11 - Market Forecast by Value (2008-2012) Page 12 - Socio-Economic Data for US Page 13 - Snapshots Sources for Further Research For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/d25387/snapshots_us_choco SOURCE: Research and Markets Ltd. Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager press@researchandmarkets.com Fax from USA: 646-607-1907 Fax from rest of the world: +353-1-481-1716 Farm diversification provides more avenues for income M.J. PRABU The Hindu, India - Online edition of India's National Newspaper Wednesday, Sep 10, 2008 Diversified success: Mr. Roy Thomas at his rabbit unit in Kozhikode district, Kerala. In Kerala, there are a number of educated youths who have been taking to agriculture in recent times. Compared to about two decades back when agriculture meant a farmer in a loin cloth ploughing his field, today’s scenario has educated youth with a dedication to succeed in this line,” says Dr. V.A. Parthasarathy, Director, Indian Institute of Spices Research, Kozhikode, Kerala. “Agriculture is a remunerative vocation. If done correctly, and if organic methods are practised, then the word failure becomes a past tense in present success,” he says. Proper guidance According to him, the case of Mr. Roy Thomas in Kozhikode district is a good example of how an educated youth, who could have easily taken up any job other than agriculture, chose to take up this avocation and based on the advice and guidelines by our scientists, has been earning nearly rupees two lakhs a year. In the 8 acres, Mr. Roy has planted 120 coconut, 400 areca palms and 100 cocoa plants in 6 acres. Intercrops Fifty black pepper vines were also trailed on the coconut palms. Banana, ginger and turmeric are grown as intercrops and rubber has been planted in the remaining two acres. “My main income is from coconut, areca nut, banana, ginger and turmeric. I have been able to get a gross annual income of Rs.1, 26,000 from these crops,” he says. Acting on advice from the KVK scientists after (attending training programmes) he applied for a loan under the Prime Minister’s Rozhar Yojana and constructed a shed and started growing rabbits. He has fabricated two types of cages. The big cages can accommodate 10 animals each and the smaller ones, 4 animals each. Presently he has 60 animals. Regarding feed for the animals he says, “rice bran, goat feed and green grass are being fed to my animals. I spend about rupees two per day per animal for food and medicines.” A female rabbit gives birth to about 5-6 kids and the animals are ready for sale after 45 days at Rs. 350 per pair. “I have made a profit of Rs. 6,000 through the sale of the animals within a short period,” he explained. Poultry He has also constructed two poultry sheds. Each shed can accommodate 250 to 350 birds. He procures day-old chicks of Kalinga or Gramasree breeds from the Government hatchery at Kozhikode or from the Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur and rears them for about 45 days. COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 50 The chicks are sold to the local farmers after immunization. “I get a profit of Rs. 10 per bird. I have already reared about 3,200 birds in five batches and have so far made a net income of nearly Rs. 32,000, in 45 days” he says. He has started an ornamental bird unit. The birds are reared under a coconut leaf-thatched shed, which is partitioned into compartments. Day-old-chicks are procured at Rs.70 per bird and are sold after 90 days at Rs. 400 per bird. Good demand He spends around Rs.160 per bird towards feed and medicines. “I get a profit of more than Rs.150 per bird. I have sold 30 birds so far, making a net profit of Rs. 5,100 within four months,” he explains. Since the demand for the birds is very high, he is planning to strengthen the unit with more birds and breeds. The animal wastes and dried leaves are used for making organic manures which are used in his farm. The waste from the rabbit unit is used for producing biogas for his domestic use. Mr. Roy has been awarded the best farmer award by the Department of Agriculture, Govt. of Kerala for his mixed farming model. Nana Addo to bring innovations -Into the cocoa industry The Statesman Online, Ghana - 11 Sep 2008 News Desk , 11/09/2008 Since the New Patriotic Party took over the reins of government in 2001, it has left no stone unturned to better the lot of the nation's farmers. Since 2000 the NPP has succeeded in increasing productivity and production, expanding the cocoa industry and adding value through processing, and improving cocoa farmers' lives with better incomes, housing and transportation. The trend will continue with more innovations under a government of Nana Akufo-Addo, current Presidential candidate of the NPP. During his ongoing tour of cocoa-farming areas in the Ashanti Region, Nana Addo pledged to establish a ground-breaking Cocoa Farmer Pension Scheme, the first of its kind in Ghana, to put an end to poverty and insecurity amongst retired cocoa farmers, and accord them a secure and comfortable future even after they stop producing cocoa. The disclosure comes a few days before the opening of the 2008/09 crop season in which cocoa farmers are set to receive a massive windfall following the government’s announcement last weekend of a 36 percent increase in cocoa producer price from GH¢75 per bag to a record high of GH¢102 per bag. Nana Akufo-Addo’s government, he maintained would utilise the high global price of cocoa and the dramatic increase in the productivity and profitability of the sector over the past eight years to ensure that "today’s prosperity is used to provide a brighter future for Ghana’s millions of cocoa farmers and their dependents." This innovative pension scheme is one of a number of policies that Nana Akufo-Addo will pursue as President to provide greater security, prosperity and opportunities for informal workers by shifting them into the formal sector. He had already declared at the TUC Congress in Kumasi on 12 August 2008 that “there will be a sustained effort to bring into our retirement schemes those in the informal sector, to give a boost to those schemes and to secure the future of our informal workers.” This pioneering programme will therefore act as a pilot, and once established the next NPP government will seek to expand it to other agricultural sectors. COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 51 The proposed pension scheme is further testament to the NPP’s commitment to Ghana’s cocoa farmers and the cocoa farming sector, in recognition of their national importance and their contribution to national development. “This pension scheme is part of the NPP’s comprehensive policy package on cocoa, which will see the expansion of the disease control programme, progress towards an ambitious but achievable goal of 50% domestic processing of cocoa, increased credit and investment for expansion, utilisation of cocoa by-products, and better roads and houses for farmers”, remarked a top party activist. Within a period of under eight years of the NPP regime, there have been record levels of production with Ghana today producing almost double what it did in 2000, largely the result of highly successful disease control under the Cocoa Diseases and Pests Control programme, launched in 2001. The government has also secured unprecedented levels of finance and credit for expansion, the latest being the US$1 billion for the 2008/2009 cocoa harvest, fostered domestic processing through fiscal incentives, invested in research and development and vigorously embarked on the tarring of roads in remote cocoa growing areas to improve market access as well as farmers’ quality of lives. Farmers have furthermore benefited from the highest ever producer prices - over five times higher than in 2000, together with regular bonuses acting both as reward and incentive. Chocolate and coffee entrepreneur with a legacy of philanthropy By Haig Simonian Financial Times, UK - September 12 2008 03:00 Klaus Jacobs, the entrepreneur who built his family's coffee roasting business into one of the biggest coffee and chocolate empires in the world, died yesterday at 71. German-born, Swiss naturalised and a UK resident, Mr Jacobs' biggest move was the sale of Jacobs Suchard, the business he had developed through organic growth and canny deals, to Philip Morris. The proceeds went to creating Barry Callebaut, the world's leading industrial chocolate maker, and Adecco, the biggest international temporary employment group. Born in Bremen in December 1936, he developed the family's traditional coffee roasting business and moved into chocolate, most notably with the acquisition of Suchard, one of the best- known brands in Switzerland, where he also took up residence and gained nationality. The sale of the combined group and loss of the Suchard name to a US conglomerate was controversial in Switzerland. Barry Callebaut, the quoted Swiss chocolate company almost 70 per cent owned by family interests, subsequently developed into the world's biggest chocolate producer. Separately, Adecco, almost 23 per cent owned by family interests and the foundation created by Mr Jacobs in 1988, developed into the world's top "temping" group after the 1996 merger of Switzerland's Adia, in which Mr Jacobs had invested, with Ecco of France. Mr Jacobs remained active in both "his" companies in various roles. But he was particularly involved with Adecco given his interest in youth and employment - as well as a corporate setback in 2004 that eventually prompted a split with Philippe Foriel-Destezet, the French entrepreneur behind Ecco, which left Mr Jacobs as the key shareholder. But it will be as much for his private interests and philanthropy that Mr Jacobs will be remembered. A keen horseman, he eventually gave up residence in Switzerland for a stud near Newmarket in the UK. He was also strongly committed to the scout movement. In November 2006, he made one of the biggest single donations of its kind in Europe with a €200m ($278m) gift to the International University Bremen, which renamed itself the Jacobs University Bremen. Speaking to the COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 52 Financial Times at the time, Mr Jacobs said the gesture stood as an appeal to other business leaders to be more generous, especially in supporting education and science. Mr Jacobs, who like his mother, died from a brain tumour, was twice married and the father of six children. Storms Pound Dominican Agriculture Santo Domingo, Sep 11 (Prensa Latina) Dominican farmers are strongly committed to recovering crops destroyed by three storms in the last weeks, with losses valued at nearly 15 million dollars. The figure chiefly accounts for the destruction of thousands of hectares of rice, banana, potato, and manioc, basic products in the Dominican diet, Agriculture Minister Salvador Jimenez noted. The southern province of San Cristobal was the most affected, with coffee and cacao crops considerably affected by rains, winds, and landslides, according to reports. Jimenez said President Leonel Fernandez gave him instructions to help farmers, but gave no further details about it. The Dominican Republic and Haiti were battered by Hurricane Hanna some weeks ago, and more recently by Gustav and Ike. New book reveals the dark history of chocolate University of Queensland - Sep 09 2008 Providing food for thought at this year's Brisbane Writers Festival is Canadian journalist Carol Off, whose new book Bitter Chocolate delves into the dark side of the confectionary trade. Recently published by The University of Queensland Press, the book offers a stinging exposé of the chocolate industry throughout the ages and is one of several UQP titles featured during the four-day event. To research the book, Ms Off traveled to Côte d'Ivoire in West Africa where the majority of the world's cocoa comes from. “I always start an investigation from a sceptical point of view so I took everything I had been told with a grain of salt,” Ms Off said. “I was surprised to find the deep cleavage between the people who produce cocoa and those who consume it.” Ms Off said the Spanish stole the secret of chocolate from the Mesoamericans, whose use of cocoa concoctions dates back thousands of years. From there, it was only a matter of time before the chocolate craze spread throughout Europe and then America. “I always over research my books because the subjects fascinate me. I'm a journalist - not an historian - so I relied on the anthropologists who had already done much of the groundwork,” she said. “I found a long history of cocoa as a product that was consumed by the elites while it was produced by slaves. That history goes back to ancient Olmecs and the Aztecs ruled by Montezuma who was the world's first chocoholic.” The book discusses a number of topics including the famous “chocolate strike” by children in Canada in the 1940s and the growth in fair trade and organic cocoa farms. Bitter Chocolate also details how some of the biggest names in the business were complicit in the slavery trade during the 18th and 19th centuries, despite their public opposition at the time. “What fascinated me most was the history of the world's first cocoa barons and chocolate industrialists,” Ms Off said. COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 53 “Milton Hershey and the Cadbury brothers were deeply religious - zealots really - who made social utopias for their workers in the US and Great Britain. But their ugly secret was that their cocoa beans were produced by slaves even as they were dedicated abolitionists.” She also discovered disturbing reports that African child labour continues to be used in cocoa farms and her subsequent investigation into the practice forms an important part of the book. “I was surprised that the farmers and their labourers - mostly conscripted and forced labour of children – didn't know anything about chocolate,” Ms Off said. “They harvested the beans and cultivated cocoa but they told me they had no idea what westerners did with the beans or how they were consumed. They had never tasted chocolate and probably never will.” Bitter Chocolate is available in bookstores across Australia, with the author appearing at the Brisbane Writers Festival on the 19th and 20th of September. For program details, visit www.brisbanewritersfestival.com.au Other UQP authors attending the event include Simon Cleary (The Comfort of Figs), multi-award winning poet Sam Wagan Watson and Indigenous activist and academic Dr Jackie Huggins. Ivory Coast cocoa sector faces season in turmoil By David Lewis ABIDJAN, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Corruption scandals, strikes and power struggles that have rocked Ivory Coast's cocoa sector before a new harvest and upcoming elections could rattle markets if they persist. But analysts expect the world's biggest cocoa grower, which has kept on producing big harvests despite a brief 2002/2003 civil war and long-running political crisis, will still get its beans to market despite the turmoil. "If it goes on for longer than six to eight weeks, you would have an issue on your hands which could affect the price of cocoa on the markets," Jonathan Parkman, Head of Agri Commodity Brokerage at Fortis Commodity Derivatives, told Reuters. Cocoa export volumes in the West African nation are low, with just 7,000 tonnes arriving at ports last week. But this will quickly rise as the new 2008/2009 harvest gets under way on Oct. 1. Fortis sees exports in November hitting 280,000 tonnes. "If there are problems, yes, the market will be nervous ... but the cocoa will find its way out," Parkman said. He suggested that if the Ivorian export sector was blocked, farmers might sell cocoa through neighbouring Ghana or nearby Togo. Ivory Coast's 2002/2003 war split the country between a rebel-held north and government-controlled south, but the long-running political crisis did not stop cocoa exports. A strike this month over unpaid salaries by employees in the Coffee and Cocoa Bourse (BCC) has disrupted export registration. Moving to tackle the chaos, the Ivorian government announced plans on Thursday to overhaul the sector by replacing its five main administrative bodies with a single temporary organisation, ahead of an intended longerterm reform. "The war didn't stop the cocoa so it is unlikely a strike will. The strike has put enough pressure on the authorities to force a decision," one analyst in Ivory Coast, who asked not to be named, said. The finances of the Ivorian cocoa industry have long been murky but the current crisis was sparked by the arrests of senior cocoa administrators in June on charges of embezzlement. "Political interference and corruption are long standing problems ... The situation at the moment is very confusing and significant steps to increase transparency should be taken as soon as possible," said Maria Lopez of anti-corruption campaign group Global Witness which has studied the Ivorian industry. ELECTION DOUBTS, DISEASE FEARS But after several past promises of change, many view the government's latest reform moves with some scepticism. "People have been talking about reform for years," said the analyst. "They can maybe appoint a provisional administrator but they cannot decide today to set up a structure and expect it to be up and running by Oct. 1." The organisations being replaced levied heavy taxes on cocoa that were meant to be reinvested in the sector. Instead, vast amounts of money disappeared, eventually leading to the arrests. COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 54 "We were waiting for the government to restore some order in the sector, especially as we are coming to the new season ... but let's see if this will really change something," said the director of a European exporting company. The World Bank has tied future aid to cocoa sector reform, which it views as central to revitalising what was once the West African region's most robust economy. But long-term overhaul of an industry that accounts for 40 percent of export income also hinges on the outcome of long-awaited presidential elections, which are meant to finally draw a line under Ivory Coast's political crisis. The polls are due on Nov. 30 but preparations are far behind schedule and election experts say a further delay is inevitable. Analysts question how the cocoa sector can be cleaned up amid the continuing political uncertainty. Adding to concerns, Ivorian exporters have warned that black pod disease will lead to the 2008/09 main crop coming in 6-8 percent down on last year's production of 1.05 million tonnes. "The next couple of years are crucial," said Fortis' Parkman. "If for whatever reason they don't plough money back into increasing production, the market will face problems". (Additional reporting by Ange Aboa; Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Michael Roddy) Cocoa farmers commend government Ghana Dot, Ghana - 13 Sep 2008 Gonasua (B/A),Farmers at Gonasua in Jaman South District have expressed their appreciation to the government for increasing the producer price of cocoa as well as COCOBOD scholarships for their wards. They said the government's gesture would encourage them to redouble efforts to produce more of the crop. Nana Yaw Yeboah, chief of the town and himself a cocoa farmer, said this at the celebration of the annual Munufie (Yam) festival in the area. The chief urged parents and guardians to complement government interventions and provide the basic needs of their children and wards. The chief commended the government for the institution of the national health insurance scheme and appealed to his people to embrace the scheme and register to enjoy all the benefits. COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 55 TIT BITS (Source: Business Recorder – www.brecorder.com) Indonesian cocoa output may drop to 'critical level' JAKARTA (September 14, 2008): Indonesia's cocoa output may drop to a "critical level" in the next three-tofour years due to pests, disease, and poor farming practices, an official said. It could fall further if farmers then turn to more profitable crops, the official added. London sugar, coffee rebound LONDON (September 13, 2008): Sugar prices rose sharply on Friday, rebounding from steep losses earlier in the week, bolstered by a weaker dollar and sentiment that the decline may have been overdone, dealers said. Coffee prices were also higher in a broad-based commodity advance while cocoa was mixed with sterlingdominated London futures weighed down by the weaker dollar. US MIDDAY: coffee, cocoa climb NEW YORK (September 13, 2008): Arabica coffee and US cocoa futures climbed quietly in early trade on Friday, as the weak dollar and firm crude oil market provided a boost, traders said. Arabica coffee for December delivery was up 0.45 cent at $1.389 per lb, by 9:13 am EDT (1313 GMT), in dealings from $1.3825 to $1.4020. Exporters fret over falling Ivorian cocoa quality ABIDJAN (September 13, 2008): The worsening quality of Ivory Coast cocoa coming in from the bush has become a major headache for exporters, who are calling for concerted action to prevent the country losing market share to neighbouring producer Ghana. Soft commodities tumble LONDON (September 12, 2008): Sugar, coffee and cocoa futures all fell sharply on Thursday as a strong dollar and weak crude oil market sparked renewed fund selling of commodities. "Support levels are breaking every day. We can't say this is the end of the downtrend. It is not possible to say that," said Diapason fund manager Romain Lathiere. US MIDDAY: coffee and cocoa slip NEW YORK (September 12, 2008): Arabica coffee and US cocoa futures fell in early trade on Thursday, as the dollar climbed and as a bearish tone lingered around the overall commodity structure, traders said. Arabica coffee for December delivery was down 2.90 cents at $1.379 per lb, by 9:27 am EDT (1327 GMT), in dealings from $1.3775 to $1.4025. London soft commodities firm LONDON (September 11, 2008): Coffee, cocoa and sugar prices were mostly steady on Wednesday with the markets looking to build a base after a broad-based commodities sell-off during the last few days, dealers said. "I think the rot has probably stopped for now," said Lars Steffensen, managing director of Ebullio Capital Management. US MIDDAY: coffee down, cocoa mixed NEW YORK (September 11, 2008): Arabica coffee reversed earlier gains and headed south in early trade on Wednesday, on continued long liquidation, while US cocoa was mixed in light volume, traders said. Arabica coffee for December delivery was down 1.10 cents at $1.39 per lb, by 9:20 am EDT (1320 GMT), in dealings from $1.385 to $1.4105. Soft commodities decline LONDON (September 10, 2008): Sugar, cocoa and coffee futures fell on Tuesday, tracking losses in many other commodities and oil, as a firm dollar helped fuel fund long liquidation. "Having been the hot ticket in the first half of the year, commodities are now seen as a sick dog," trade house ED&F Man said in a report on Tuesday. US MIDDAY: coffee, cocoa down NEW YORK (September 10, 2008): Arabica coffee and US cocoa futures dropped in early trade on Tuesday, as longs liquidated positions on the heels of weak outside markets, traders said. Arabica coffee for December delivery was down 2.15 cents at $1.4085 per lb, by 9:10 am EDT (1310 GMT), in dealings from $1.4035 to $1.432. COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 56 London sugar climbs, cocoa tumbles LONDON (September 09, 2008): Sugar prices firmed on Monday as Hurricane Ike roared through key growing areas in the Caribbean, flattening crops in Cuba, while cocoa fell sharply on selling by system funds. Dealers said sugar also derived support from a rise in crude oil prices inspired by the threat posed by the hurricane to the US Gulf of Mexico oil hub. US MIDDAY: cocoa down, coffee up NEW YORK (September 09, 2008): US cocoa futures sank to a five-month low on ICE in early trade on Monday, before trade halted due to technical problems, while arabica coffee inched higher, traders said. Arabica coffee for December delivery up 0.55 cent at $1.432 per lb, when the last trade was made at 8:34 am EDT (1234 GMT). Ivorian cocoa arrivals rise ABIDJAN (September 09, 2008): cocoa arrivals at ports in top grower Ivory Coast reached around 1,317,000 tonnes from October 1, 2007 to September 7, 2008, exporters estimated on Monday, compared with 1,209,073 tonnes in the same period of the previous season. According to the estimate, around 7,000 tonnes of beans were delivered to the West African state's two ports in the week of September 1-7, down from 12,801 tonnes in the same week a year ago. Oil prices dive in globe on hurricane, strong dollar LONDON (September 07, 2008): Crude oil prices plunged this week as Hurricane Gustav spared US energy facilities in the Gulf of Mexico, traders said. Commodities futures, notably oil and metals, were also pushed lower by a strong dollar and concerns about falling demand for raw materials amid a global economic slowdown, they added. Soft commodity futures drop LONDON (September 06, 2008): Soft commodity futures edged lower on Friday under pressure for much of the session from a resilient US dollar and weaker oil prices, and dealers saw further downside risks. Oil prices fell more than $2 as flagging demand in the United States and other consumer nations extended crude's losses to 8 percent this week. US MIDDAY: coffee, cocoa firm NEW YORK (September 06, 2008): Arabica coffee futures trading on ICE inched up early Friday, with a boost from the slightly lower dollar, while US cocoa found chart-based strength in thin dealings, traders said. December coffee was up 0.25 cent at $1.47 per lb, by 9:16 am EDT (1316 GMT). COCOA PRODUCERS’ ALLIANCE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COMPLEX TAFAWA BALEWA SQUARE, P.O. BOX 1718, LAGOS, NIGERIA. TEL: +234(0)1-263-5574 FAX: +234(0)1-263-5684 Email: econs@copal-cpa.org Website: www.copal-cpa.org 57
