Cocoa keeps flowing despite Ivory Coast crisis focus 01/08/2011

Cocoa keeps flowing despite Ivory Coast crisis

focus

01/08/2011
SAN PEDRO — On the docks of the port of San Pedro, where workers spend long days in the sun loading bag after bag of cocoa onto outgoing ships, it seems hard to believe Ivory Coast is in crisis at all.

While in the economic capital Abidjan the stand-off between incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo and challenger Alassane Ouattara raises fears of civil war, here in the world’s leading export hub for the much-prized cocoa bean, life goes on much as normal.

“Work has never stopped” despite the crisis and unrest, Guy Manouan, the San Pedro port’s commercial and marketing director, told AFP.

In fact, the current harvest is on track to surpass the previous one, according to Ivory Coast’s cocoa regulator, the Coffee and Cocoa Bourse (BCC)..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110108com3.html