Bringing reform

Côte d’Ivoire: Yves Brahima Koné, head of the Coffee & Cocoa Council, sets his sights on the East

By Florence Richard

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Posted on May 12, 2022 09:18

 © Yves Brahima Kone, managing director of the CCC’s board, attends the national cocoa days marking the opening of the cocoa season 2017-2018 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Picture taken September 29, 2017. REUTERS/Luc Gnago
Yves Brahima Kone, managing director of the CCC’s board, attends the national cocoa days marking the opening of the cocoa season 2017-2018 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Picture taken September 29, 2017. REUTERS/Luc Gnago

Yves Brahima Koné is working hard to consolidate and reform Côte d’Ivoire’s coffee and cocoa sector by improving farmers’ wages, traceability, forest protection, finding new markets and fighting against child labour.

In Abidjan’s Plateau district, from his office on the 23rd floor of the ex-Caistab tower – his temporary workspace until he moves into an ultramodern glass building due to open in 2025 – Koné has set his sights on Asia and the Middle East. The director-general of the Conseil du Café-Cacao (CCC), the public body that regulates the sector in Côte d’Ivoire, has just returned from Abu Dhabi.

For several days in March, he had a series of meetings there. He met with the oil-rich monarchy’s authorities and, above all, representatives from investment fund management companies as well as cocoa processing organisations, including TALC Investment, Agthia Group PJSC and Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), which are also expected in Côte d’Ivoire.

In the midst of the spectacular skyscrapers of the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), this agronomist engineer plans to open a CCC office in the near

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