Member Spotlight
WCF member World's Finest Chocolate, in addition to pioneering, some 50 years ago, the concept of product fund-raising to help support the financial needs of schools, churches, athletic groups and charities, also was a pioneer in sustainable cocoa growing. The 65-year old Chicago based family-owned chocolate company has been practicing sustainable cocoa growing on its Caribbean experimental cacao farm in St. Lucia for nearly 30 years.
Eddie Opler, grandson of company founder Ed Opler, Sr., is committed to working with customers, employees and suppliers on continuous improvement in everything the company does. "That's a major reason why we are proud to be a member of the World Cocoa Foundation," states Opler. "We want to do what we can to help cocoa farm families in St. Lucia and in other cocoa growing areas be able to improve their livelihoods while growing quality cocoa. "World's Finest has and will continue to support responsible, sustainable cocoa farming wherever we buy cocoa."
WCF Partnership Meeting Oct. 14-15
Register now for WCF's semi-annual partnership meeting October 14 and 15 at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC. The meeting will feature plenary sessions as well as workshops on sustainable programs in West Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America and cocoa research (cocoa breeding and biocontrol). An evening reception featuring a poster session and presentation of awards to individuals who have contributed to the cocoa industry will be held the evening of October 14. For registration questions, please contact Kesso Diallo.WCF Welcomes New Member The Promotion in Motion Company
WCF is pleased to announce that The Promotion in Motion Companies, Inc. has joined the Foundation. The Promotion in Motion Companies, Inc. is headquartered in New Jersey, USA and has wholly owned foreign subsidiaries in Canada, the United Kingdom and Spain. The company's products include popular brand name confections such as SUN-MAID Milk Chocolate Covered Raisins and FISHERS Chocolate Covered Peanuts.
Welcome New WCF Staff Member Kesso Diallo
Please join us in welcoming Kesso Diallo, Program Assistant, to the WCF staff. Kesso will be handling a whole host of administrative functions for the Global Issues Group as well as the World Cocoa Foundation. Most of you have heard from Kesso already regarding the October Partnership meeting. kesso.diallo@WorldCocoa.org
US-Africa Agribusiness Conference Nov. 7-10
A US-Africa Agribusiness Conference will be held in Monterey, CA on November 7-10, 2004. Corporate Council on Africa is sponsoring the event and the World Cocoa Foundation is a sponsor. WCF will also have a speaking role during the opening session. We hope you can attend. To view the registration form,
WCF Cocoa Calendar Updates
To view the updated WCF Cocoa Calendar, visit the News and Events section of the WCF website for the latest news on upcoming events.Research Update
For the July update on USDA cocoa related research, please visit the WCF Website here.New Publications Up in the WCF Library
Many new publications have been downloaded and are now available in the WCF Library. To view the latest articles, please visit the WCF Library today.
West Africa
WCF recently awarded the Tetteh Quarshie Education Fund in Ghana. This fund is a small grant to fund vocational education programs. The funding will help in the construction and provision of educational material for a school under construction at Mamapong.
Training programs will teach young farmers in cocoa production, conservation, agronomy and best practices techniques.
This program complements the CLASSE vocational program that WCF is funding in Cote d'Ivoire.
South East Asia
Robert Peck and BK Matlick visited the Southeast Asia SUCCESS Alliance project in July. They report that the project is making excellent progress in implementing training for new cocoa farmers. In Vietnam, 2,400 farmers to be trained in 2004. Each farmer will receive 150 seedlings as part of the program. The seedlings will be planted under existing coconut trees or will be intercropped with existing black pepper and other crops.
On the second part of the Southeast Asia trip, Robert and BK visited Sulawesi, Indonesia where they had very good meetings with ASKINDO president Jalim Abd Razak and the SUCCESS Alliance team. They also visited University Hasamuddin where WCF funds research on ants to combat the CPB, as well as visiting with Mr. Rene Terneusen at the Mars processing plant. WCF will be participating in the SUCCESS Alliance Regional Conference, "Building a Sweeter Future for Cocoa Farmers", to be celebrated in Makassar, Indonesia October 5-8 2004.
SUCCESS Alliance in Sulawesi, Indonesia completed its seventh cycle of Cocoa Pod Borer resistance Farmer Field School with nearly 5000 cocoa farmers being trained. Farmer Organization development is a large part of this program as it helps ensure the continuation of the practices learned.The team has identified over 200 farmer alumni groups that continue to follow the training techniques. A regional workshop on farmer training will be held October 3-7.
Latin America
In the Cocoa Rehabilitation Program in Ecuador, INIAP & CIRAD conducted the second FFS preparation workshop in July. At this event, the group elaborated on the ECACAO Guidebook to be used in August at the selected Farmer Field school sites.
WCF's contributors to the Maintenance and Conservation of the International Cocoa Collection at CATIE have helped the institution reach 775 clones distributed in different areas. Likewise, CATIE now has an improved facility for cocoa propagation in Turrialba, which will allow an increase in capacity to multiply cloned plants at larger quantities.