By Giwa SHILE
Top cocoa producer Cote d’Ivoire could grind 50 per cent of its current output locally by 2022, boosted by fiscal measures and incentives given to companies in the sector, the country’s deputy head of the Coffee Cocoa Council (CCC) marketing board said on Friday.
The CCC Deputy Head, Yao N’goran, told newsmen that “it is possible to hit one million tonnes by 2020-2022 because of the fiscal advantages the government has given to companies to help them to invest massively, and that is what is happening.”
Cote d’Ivoire has an installed grinding capacity of 712,000 tonnes and increasing that capacity and new grinding units will enable it to reach the target within the next four years, N’goran said.
The government signed a convention with multinational companies in the sector including Cargill, Olan and Barry Callebaut in 2017, in which the companies agreed to increase their bean grinding by 7.5 per cent each, so as to benefit from the government incentives.
