This week, Belgium is hosting the 5th World Cocoa Conference (WWC) organized by the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO). The conference brings together all the stakeholders of the cocoa value chain: governments, cocoa farmers, cooperatives, exporters, traders, manufacturers, retailers, financial institutions, logistics companies etc.
Belgium is the world's 2nd largest exporter of chocolate (with 600,000 tons of exported chocolate), second to Germany. According to Tradexplorer.be, Belgium imports the cocoa needed for its production from West Africa, Latin America and South-East Asia. The world's main producers of cocoa beans are Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, followed by Indonesia and Ecuador (FAOSTAT).
The port of Antwerp is the 2nd largest cocoa port in Europe and has the largest cocoa bean storage depot in the world.
The International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) is based in Abidjan and has 52 member states, including 23 exporting countries and 29 importing countries, representing 86% of world cocoa exports and 72% of world cocoa imports.
The main theme of the conference is Paying a fair price to cocoa farmers in order to produce the most sustainable cocoa possible.
Source: FPS Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation
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