Ivory Coast eyes further Asian expertise to expand cocoa processing
By Ange Aboa
ABIDJAN, Oct 10 (Reuters) -Ivory Coast could sell a further stake in its Transcaococoa processor to Malaysian cocoa group Guan Chong Berhad GNCH.KL, the industry's regulator told Reuters, as it pushes for more expertise and investment to grow the sector.
On Wednesday, Guan Chong Berhad (GCB) said its Singaporean subsidiary had agreed to acquire a 25% stake in Transcao from Ivory Coast's Coffee and Cocoa Council (CCC).
The head of the West African nation's cocoa regulator told Reuters it wants to boost its interests in the growing Asian market and was open to the GCB subsidiary further increasing its stake, depending on Ivorian government approval.
"We want to go beyond and master all the trades related to processing, and GCB will help us achieve this goal," CCC Director Yves Brahima Kone said late on Wednesday.
"We have signed this participation agreement with GCB because we want ... to have a foothold in Asia," he added.
Ivory Coast is the world's largest cocoa producer, but the majority of it output is exported as beans. Transcao is part of its strategy to become a cocoa-processing powerhouse.
The company has one active plant with a capacity of 50,000 metric tons and another that will launch at the end of 2024 with the aim of bringing its total capacity to 190,000 tons by the end of 2025, Kone said.
The state has implemented an aggressive policy in recent years to make local processing attractive, including offering tax cuts and other incentives to Ivorian companies.
Kone said the partnership with GCB will bring valuable technical knowledge.
"There is also a big training component. We will have Ivorians in the commercial team, in the sales team, and in the technical team to learn and master GCB's know-how," he said.
Overall, Ivory Coast has more than 800,000 tons of installed capacity at the processing level but should reach 1 million tons in the next two years once all the processing plants under construction are operational.
Editing by Alessandra Prentice and Elaine Hardcastle
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