Cocoa Transformation in Ivory Coast: Overview of Ivory Cocoa Products by Ismail El Khalil

Ismail El Khalil, Founder and CEO of ICP (Ivory Cocoa Products), presents the company and its competitive advantages. He also shares his vision for the future of ICP in Ivory Coast.

“We entered the cocoa sector because Ivory Coast is the biggest producer of cocoa in the world. It’s a local, raw material. We thought, why not transform it locally and export it, instead of exporting it in its raw form. We developed this idea and we found a marketing partner who was willing to buy the whole production and assist us technically to start the plant. Our competitive advantage is our structure. Our current capacity is 50,000 tons per year. We have a small structure, unlike other big multinationals, and it is very efficient and effective. We have doubled our capacity in just 3 years. We started with a capacity of 25,000 tons and we have increased it to 50,000 tons, which is very good. In respect to capacity increase, we have an upcoming project as partners to install another plant. We want to venture into other crops, such as cashew. We also aim to go further down the processing line into industrial chocolate, which will all depend on the market”, says Ismail El Khalil.

FAIR USE POLICY
This material (including media content) may not be published, broadcasted, rewritten, or redistributed. However, linking directly to the page (including the source, i.e. Marcopolis.net) is permitted and encouraged.