The Cocoa Producers' conference
The Cocoa Producers' Alliance is an organisation which comprises eleven developing countries, viz Ghana, Togo, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Trinidad & Tobago. The others are Nigeria, Sao Paulo and Principe, Brazil and Ecuador.
A Ministerial meeting of the Alliance took place in Accra, Ghana from September 28 to October 5, 1984. The object was to enable the members of the Alliance to formulate a common front on prices and export policies and quotas and to create harmonisation of strategies in world marketing of cocoa. The timing of the meeting was critical as it preceded the resumed sitting of the UN Cocoa Conference which was due to take place in Geneva on October 8 for the signing or renewal of the International Cocoa Agreement (ICA).
Thus the Accra meeting being a preparatory one was necessary in view of the fact that several meetings meant to sign the ICA have proved futile due to apparent differences between the producers themselves.
In his opening address to the conference, Mr P. V. Obeng, a member of the ruling PNDC urged the participants to pool their resources together and demonstrate a political and economic expertise at the UN Forum cocoa. He called on on consuming countries to take responsibility to ensure a "fair and mutually beneficial agreement for all." Mr Obeng said: "I wish you all to renew a solid commitment for all producers to reach a more suitable Cocoa Agreement." He continued: "I furthermore wish to draw your attention to the need to maintain a balanced relationship between the objectives of the ICA and the means it provides to achieve that end."
Present at the meeting was the Executive Director of the International Cocoa Organisation (ICO), Dr Kobina Erbynn of Ghana and Mr G. Mohammed, Chairman of the Alliance.
At the end of their deliberations, the ministerial meeting endorsed a programme which will seek to reinforce economic cooperation between the member countries to harness the political will necessary for the creation of a workable, fair and mutually beneficial 4th International Cocoa Agreement.
The meeting finally issued a clarion call to cocoa consuming countries. Firstly, the Agreement should contain provisions for a system of export quotas to supplement purchases from buffer stock. This, the meeting concluded, would help to stabilise prices in the long run. Secondly, the meeting called for the withdrawal of the EEC's proposals to use artificial compounds as substitutes for cocoa butter in the manufacture of chocolates...
