France's Cemoi: Africa ready to consume more chocolate
By Marcy Nicholson NEW YORK (Reuters) - French chocolate maker Cemoi is betting that Africa's growing middle class will add its sweet treat to their diet as the company prepares to open a factory in Ivory Coast, where much of the world's cocoa beans are grown. The African factory is being built as chocolate demand falls in Europe and Africa becomes the next opportunity for growth. Ivory Coast is the world's biggest cocoa grower but chocolate is still a little-known treat there. "There's a core of middle class that is building in Africa. These people are consuming," Cemoi Chief Executive Patrick Poirrier said in a telephone interview from Perpignan, France. "When we started our grinding facility in 1996 in Abidjan, we had a car park that was empty and today the car park is full," he said, adding that this is because more people there own cars now. Cemoi, which competes with the world's biggest bean buyer, Swiss-based Barry Callebaut, as well as processors and merchants like Singapore-based Olam International and Cargill Inc, has 13 factories in Europe and a bean grinding plant in Ivory Coast. Poirrier said he sees growth opportunity in Africa for the next 10 years and that the new factory, which will make chocolate, cocoa powder and chocolate spreads, could one day become a base for exports to Asia and India. With an annual capacity of 4,000 tonnes, the factory will start selling its goods in Ivory Coast and then branch out to other countries in the West African Economic and Monetary Union, Poirrier said. The new factory, set to open in May, comes on line as the International Cocoa Organization forecasts Ivory Coast could knock the Netherlands from its top processing position this year as grinding falls not only in Europe but in Asia and North America. Poirrier estimated that global grindings will fall by 3 to 4 percent in the 2014/15 (October/September) marketing year. Family-owned Cemoi bought 145,000 tonnes of cocoa in 2014 and Poirrier said this amount will increase just slightly this year as a result of the new factory.
