Outreach
WCF Chairman John Long spoke to the American Association of Candy Technologists this week in Chicago on "Cocoa in Transition - from Crisis to Opportunity." John noted that many of the issues with regard to cocoa production have offered opportunities to "drive sustainable, positive changes" benefiting cocoa users as well as the farming families who are dependent on cocoa for their livelihoods. For a copy of the speech, click here.
Thank you Hershey, Masterfoods and Nestle USA for providing chocolate for last Friday's Youth Forum at the U.S. Department of State. Sponsored by the Africa Society, the Forum drew more than 1,000 students from Washington, DC, Virginia and Maryland to help the students understand Africa culturally, politically and economically. Bill Guyton, Jeff Morgan, Stephen Badger and Stephanie Peters attended the daylong event. The World Cocoa Foundation helps to fund the Society's Teach Africa program. Vicki Walker of Winrock International gave a presentation in the afternoon on the vocational education program in Cote d'Ivoire that WCF and the U.S. Department of Labor are supporting.
The World Cocoa Foundation and the Chocolate Manufacturers Association submitted comments to the U.S. Trade Representative last week in support of the continued eligibility of the Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana to receive benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act. The organizations have supported AGOA status for Cote d'Ivoire since 2002 and for the first time also supported AGOA status for Ghana. The letter noted the strong commitment by both governments to a child labor certification system.
New WCF Member
WCF welcomes Kraft Foods as its newest member. Martin Meyer will join the WCF Executive Committee on behalf of Kraft.
Research Update
For the August update on USDA cocoa related research, please visit the WCF Website here.
WCF October Partnership Meeting
For those of you who are unable to attend WCF's bi-annual partnership meeting in Washington, DC in October, presentations and summary reports will be posted on www.worldcocoafoundation.org after the meeting.
South East Asia
BK Matlick and Roger Dehnel will travel to Indonesia next week for a regional mid-Project review of SUCCESS Alliance. The SUCCESS Alliance team, including farmers from Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, will discuss project accomplishments, based on an impact survey, as well as plans for the second half of the 3-year project.
Latin America
Further discussions on the regional support network for cocoa initiatives, ACCESO, were held last week in Lima, Peru. USAID and WCF met with ICRAF, OAS and IICA to explore partnership alternatives and different scenarios for the implementation of this initiative in Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. Robert Peck also met with Fernando Guzman of Machu Picchu Coffee Trading Company, a WCF member in Peru.
The PRONORTE cocoa project in Ecuador is beginning the Farmer Field School method of farmer education that has proven so successful in SE Asia and West Africa. BK Matlick last week worked with project directors on FFS methodology, pest and disease control and post harvest processing. PRONORTE is funded by USAID with the objective of increasing incomes for small cocoa farmers.
West Africa
STCP held a Steering Committee meeting in Yaounde, Cameroon last week. Ken Miller, Hershey Foods Corporation, Peter van Grinsven, Masterfoods and Phil Sigley, Federation of Cocoa Commerce, attended as cocoa/chocolate industry participants. STCP program documents and 2005 workplans are available through Bill Guyton or IITA's Stephan Weise.