London, 21 July 2015—Some of the best cocoa in the world is to be examined as the International Cocoa Organization’s Ad hoc Panel on Fine or Flavour Cocoa meets in London on 18 September.

The panel, made up of experts from producing and consuming countries around the world, will review and if necessary revise Annex ‘C’ of the International Cocoa Agreement 2010, which determines the proportion in which its listed countries produce and export fine or flavour cocoa.

Fine or flavour cocoa, currently making up only about five per cent of world production, recently has been increasingly sought after, as chocolate manufacturers use it for upmarket and speciality products, and fine chocolatiers require its distinctive characteristics in aroma and flavour to enhance and differentiate their ranges.

The countries producing fine or flavour cocoa have been asked to submit proposals for inclusion in Annex ‘C’ and to justify the percentages of the type that they provide. The panel will look at the specific conditions in each producing country, including production levels, export deliveries, quality assessment and traders’ and chocolate manufacturers’ confidence in the origin in order to come to a recommendation.

More details of the work of the Fine or Flavour Cocoa Panel are available here, where you can also see the current list of countries producing this type of cocoa.

More details of the Fine or Flavour Cocoa Panel’s meeting in September can be downloaded here.

London, 16 July 2015–The Quarterly Bulletin of Cocoa Statistics produced by ICCO is the most authoritative source of cocoa statistics in the world. The database of the Bulletin, built on Oracle Personal Express, captures data submitted by ICCO members and non-members from over a hundred countries and presents the data in a report or spreadsheet that facilitates the printing of the Bulletin.

The ICCO is seeking a qualified consultant or company to develop a new customized, computerized database management system. In addition to the existing functions of the current system, the new system will be more user-friendly, optimize the regular transfer of data from MS Excel files, implement automatic data quality checks, provide an output closer to the current Bulletin’s format and be capable of handling the growing data management needs of the organization.

For a full specification, or further details, please contact Elizabeth Gyamfi at Elizabeth.Gyamfi@icco.org.