The opening high-level plenary session on the second day of the World Cocoa Foundation Meeting in Amsterdam, 'Cocoa at the Crossroads: The Future of Origin-Country Leadership in a Changing World', was expected to feature senior officials from West Africa’s cocoa powerhouses. However, last-minute withdrawals by Yves Brahima Koné of the Conseil du Café-Cacao and Francis Baah of Cocobod — both attending to unfolding pricing crises in their respective countries — shifted the conversation’s focus.
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In their absence, Michel Arrion, Executive Director of the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO), and Lawrence Attipoe, Africa Regional Coordinator at the International Trade Centre (ITC), took centre stage to address the sector’s most pressing challenges.
Demand Decline Masks Deeper Structural Issues
At the heart of the discussion was a ‘burning issue’: decreasing demand.