Exports of semi-finished cocoa products from Ivory Coast totalled 180,338 tonnes from October to March of the 2012/13 cocoa season, up 2 percent compared with the same period last year, provisional port data showed on Tuesday. The cocoa marketing season in the world’s top producer runs from October to September. Investments in cocoa processing facilities in Ivory Coast have pushed its share of grindings up sharply since 2008.
In 2010, it overtook the Netherlands to become the world’s top cocoa grinder with a capacity of 532,000 tonnes of beans, which are turned mainly into cocoa butter and powder.
