April volcanic eruption delayed negotiations; meeting now set for 21-25 June in Geneva
Geneva, 17 June 2010 -- Major exporting and importing countries will meet from 21 to 25 June to formally conclude the negotiations of a new international cocoa agreement.
The gathering is formally known as the United Nations Cocoa Conference 2010, and is being held under the auspices of UNCTAD.
The negotiations were originally planned for mid-April, but were reset for late this month after a volcanic eruption in Iceland disrupted flights into Geneva for many of the participants. However, the Conference was formally opened on 19 April and elected Ambassador Guy-Alain Emmanuel Gauze (Côte d´Ivoire) as President of the Conference and Max Schnellmann (Switzerland) as Vice President. The conference also adopted its agenda for the session.
The conference is the culmination of the meetings of the Working Group for a future International Cocoa Agreement which have been held over two years, during which the producing and consuming members of the ICCO worked together over nine sessions to jointly prepare a draft text for a new agreement. The draft provides major consensus on a number of key issues. These include:
- a new structure to further improve the efficiency of the International Cocoa Organization, which administers the provisions and supervises the operation of the agreement;
- reinforcement of a mandate for development of projects, recognizing their role in strengthening national cocoa economies and allowing them to better respond to evolving demand;
- the need to strive towards fair cocoa prices leading to equitable returns for both producers and consumers;
- promotion of the quality of cocoa and the need to develop appropriate food-safety procedures in the sector;
- development and implementation of strategies to enhance the capacity of local communities and small-scale farmers to benefit from cocoa production, thereby contributing to poverty alleviation;
- dissemination of information on financial tools and services that could assist cocoa producers, including access to credit and the managing of price risk;
- enhancement of market transparency by collecting, processing, and distributing data from both private and public sources, and increased cooperation between the ICCO and the private sector; and
- codification of ICCO cooperation with non-governmental organizations.
At the forefront of the objectives of the future International Cocoa Agreement is the need to address the core problem of the low income levels of cocoa farmers.
The Conference is expected to draw wide participation from producers and consumers spanning West Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Europe, and will also be open to participation by registered observer countries and organizations under the rules for observers.
It should be underlined that negotiations on a future International Cocoa Agreement exclusively take place between delegations of governments of cocoa importing and cocoa exporting countries. Agreement on articles in the new agreement is always reached by consensus: indeed successful negotiations can only be concluded when full consensus is reached on the text of a new agreement.
The International Cocoa Agreement currently in force was ratified, approved, signed, or given notification of provisional application by the governments of 14 exporting countries and 29 importing countries, plus the European Union (see list below). Together, these signatories account for over 60% of world cocoa consumption and more than 80% of world cocoa production.
- Exporting members: Brazil, Cameroon, Côte d´Ivoire, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Gabon, Ghana, Malaysia, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela.
- Importing members: The European Union (Austria, Belgium/Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom), the Russian Federation, and Switzerland.
In accordance with the current International Cocoa Agreement, 2001, the primary objective of the International Cocoa Organization is the development and strengthening of international co-operation between producers and consumers.