Olam International to establish Cote d'Ivoire cocoa site

S$58.7mln plant will process 60,000 metric tonnes of cocoa beans into cocoa liquor, butter and cake.

Singapore-based agribusiness group Olam International is to build a cocoa processing facility in Cote d’Ivoire.Olam said last Tuesday that it would build a greenfield cocoa processing in Abidjan, the country’s capital. The US$43.5 million (S$58.7 million) investment also includes a primary processing and warehousing facility in San Pedro.

The cocoa plant will process around 60,000 metric tonnes of cocoa beans into cocoa liquor, butter and cake.

The San Pedro site will be a drying, cleaning and sorting site - or “usine” as defined by the cocoa industry, Olam said.
Gerry Manley, managing director and global head of cocoa at Olam, said the investment in Cote d’Ivoire, the world’s largest producer of cocoa, would improve the company’s margins and make it more competitive in the sector.

View the full story in Australia Food News.