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ICCO CANCELS 2022 WORLD COCOA CONFERENCE

The International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO) announced that they would cancel the 2022 World Cocoa Conference due to ongoing uncertainties surrounding COVID restrictions.

The event, which usually takes place every two years, hasn’t been able to return successfully since 2018, with last year’s planned event in Bali, Indonesia, being pushed back a year due to the pandemic. The ICCO commented:

The International Cocoa Organization is currently monitoring reports from the World Health Organisation (WHO) daily on the World Cocoa Conference website. We must put the health and safety of our attendees and staff above all else.

The last event in 2018 was held in Berlin and hosted over 1200 attendees from 60+ countries. The conference brought together people from across the entire value chain, including chocolate manufacturers, cocoa processors, trading companies, service providers and government agencies.

To keep in line with the biennial cycle, the ICCO has confirmed that the next event will take place in 2024 in Brussels, Belgium.

The four-day conference gathers significant industry players to discuss current issues in producing, trading, processing and marketing cocoa and related products. The WCC was first launched in 2012 in the home of the ICCO – Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, to discuss and agree upon measures to address the challenges facing the cocoa sector.

Though the WCC has been delayed until 2024, the ICCO is still set to host the International Symposium on Cocoa Research later this year from 5-7 December.

The Symposium, which itself was postponed from September 2021 due to covid, will be held in Montpelier, France, and will be an opportunity for those invested in the future of cocoa to gather and discuss topics surrounding the ethical and sustainable production of the commodity.

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