Cote d'Ivoire, the world's largest cocoa producer, inaugurated a China-backed cocoa processing industrial complex in its capital city Abidjan on Thursday.
Located in the PK24 industrial park in northern Abidjan, the cocoa complex is a cooperation project between China Light Industry Nanning Design Engineering Co., Ltd. (CNDC) and the Cote d'Ivoire Coffee-Cocoa Council, with a total investment of 130 billion CFA francs (approximately 231.7 million U.S. dollars).
Built on a 21-hectare site, the complex features a cocoa processing plant with a capacity of 50,000 tons and a training center for the cocoa and chocolate trades aimed at strengthening local skills and improving youth employability. It has created 1,400 jobs so far.
Vice President of Cote d'Ivoire Tiemoko Meyliet Kone, Chinese Ambassador to Cote d'Ivoire Wu Jie, Kobenan Kouassi Adjoumani, Cote d'Ivoire's Minister of State and Minister of Agriculture and Rural Rural Development, and Kone Brahima Yves, director for the Cote d'Ivoire Coffee-Cocoa Council, were among those present at the inauguration ceremony.
"I hereby take this opportunity to recall that one of the priorities of His Excellency the President of the Republic's policy is the improvement of the living conditions of producers, which necessarily involves guaranteeing a decent income and better remuneration for their activities. This industrial complex embodies the President of the Republic's vision of achieving the structural transformation of our economy by strengthening the link between production, processing, and consumption," Adjoumani said in a speech at the ceremony.
Kone Brahima Yves attributed the successful inauguration of the complex to the cooperative partnership between China and Cote d'Ivoire.
"This is the place to recall that the financing of the PK24 industrial complex was made possible thanks to the excellent relations between the Republic of Cote d'Ivoire and the People's Republic of China. This is why we extend our greetings and thanks to the Chinese ambassador to Cote d'Ivoire, who is accompanying our partners at CNDC, the Chinese company that carried out the construction of this infrastructure," he said in his speech.
Representatives of local cocoa producers and exporters attending the ceremony were optimistic about the future of the country's cocoa industry.
"This factory represents a great breath of fresh air for us, cocoa producers of Cote d'Ivoire, because 65 years later, here is a factory where the cocoa producers of Cote d'Ivoire have just seen the light of day. We thank China because we had long relied on the West, and today China is giving us an opportunity to diversify our partnerships and especially a quality partnership that China offers us," Tia Marcel, a local cocoa producer, told the China Global Television Network (CGTN) in an interview.
Cote d'Ivoire inaugurates China-backed cocoa processing complex
