RI imports Ivorian cocoa

RI imports Ivorian cocoa

ABIDJAN (Reuters): Amsterdam, Philadelphia and Tallinn were the three main destinations of Ivory Coast's cocoa beans in the first three months of the 2000/2001 (Oct-Sept) season, the latest port data show.

The Dutch port of Amsterdam received 77,842 tonnes of beans in the period, the American port of Philadelphia 29,911 tonnes and the Estonian port of Tallinn 27,622 tonnes.

Tallinn is the main port of entry of beans for the Russian cocoa grinding industry, an Abidjan-based exporter said.

Russia imported over 70,000 tonnes of cocoa beans in 2000.

The data also show that Ivory Coast, with over 1.1 million tonnes per year the world's biggest cocoa producer, shipped in the same period 2,961 tonnes of its beans to Indonesia, which is with some 325,000 tonnes the world's third largest producer.

It was not immediately clear why Indonesia imported Ivorian beans.

Brazil, where cocoa production slumped in the 1990s to around 130,000 tonnes from 380,000 tonnes due to witchbroom disease, imported 10,103 tonnes of Ivorian beans in the period.