Negotiations set for 19-23 April in Geneva
Geneva, 16 April 2010 -- Major exporting and importing countries will meet from 19 to 23 April to formally conclude the negotiations of a new international cocoa agreement, following extensive preparatory meetings among member States of the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) during the past 18 months.
The gathering is formally known as the United Nations Cocoa Conference 2010, and is being held under the auspices of UNCTAD.
The current International Cocoa Agreement, which entered into definitive force in 2005, is set to expire on 30 September 2012. It is the sixth in a series of such agreements, and differs from its predecessors in that it recommends, on the basis of the negotiations conducted to date, the exclusion of market regulatory mechanisms, such as production quotas, buffer stocks, and other price-support measures. Instead, the current agreement emphasizes the importance of developing a "sustainable cocoa economy", encompassing environmental, social, and economic dimensions. The specific wording of the mandate for ICCO in developing a sustainable cocoa economy will be one of the major areas of discussion in the upcoming negotiations.
Intergovernmental cooperation between producers and consumers of commodities takes place in the form of international commodity agreements (ICAs) and international study groups (ISGs).
The export value of world cocoa bean production during the current 2009/2010 cocoa year is estimated at some US$ 10 billion.
In preliminary negotiations, most of the objectives of the current agreement were considered still valid. The draft text for the future agreement, however, includes new proposals on:
- a new structure to further improve the efficiency of the International Cocoa Organization, which administers the provisions and supervises the operation of the agreement;
- codification of ICCO cooperation with NGOs;
- reinforcement of a mandate for project development, recognizing the role of projects in strengthening national cocoa economies and allowing them to better respond to evolving demand;
- the need to strive for fair cocoa prices that provide 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 managing price risk; and
- enhancement of market transparency by collecting, processing, and distributing data from both private and public sources, and increased cooperation between ICCO and the private sector.
The low incomes of smallholder cocoa farmers are widely acknowledged to be the single most important challenge for the world cocoa economy. Hence the economic aspect of sustainability is of paramount importance, as cocoa prices must be sufficiently remunerative for farmers, and cocoa farming must be made more efficient and productive to ensure decent incomes for them.
Through the creation of a Consultative Board on the World Cocoa Economy, the current agreement seeks the active involvement of the private sector in achieving its goals. This board has a mandate as broad as that of the International Cocoa Council, although it functions in a purely advisory capacity. In recent years, the board has been active in developing the concept and framework for sustainability. Its activities resulted in the organization of two round table meetings on establishing a sustainable world cocoa economy.
The International Cocoa Agreement now 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.
As of 9 April 2010, the membership of the International Cocoa Organization stands as follows:
- Exporting members: Brazil, Cameroon, Côte d´Ivoire, 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 United Kingdom), the Russian Federation, and Switzerland.
