Under the co-chairmanship of Ministers Mamadou Sangafowa Coulibaly of Agriculture and Rural Development and Jean-Claude Brou of Industry and Mines of Côte d’Ivoire, the Cotton and Cashew Council organized the first Council of Ministers of the countries of the International Cashew Consultative Council on September 29, 2017 in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Ministers from about ten producing countries took part in this first session of the CICC Council of Ministers. These are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Conakry, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo and Mali.
This meeting, which allowed the registration of two new members (Mali and Guinea Conakry), was an opportunity for the representatives to examine and validate the draft operational documents of the CICC and its Executive Secretariat, namely, among others, the internal regulations, the organization chart, the work program, the budget and the financing method of the institution over the next three years.
This first Council of Ministers also adopted an approach to managing the Executive Secretariat and took note of the Headquarters Agreement that allows Côte d’Ivoire to host the headquarters of the CICC. At the opening of the event, Minister Jean-Claude Brou did not fail to congratulate the dynamism of his colleague Mamadou Sangafowa Coulibaly regarding the creation and implementation of this institution which is “an essential instrument for the promotion and development of the cashew sector”. For the Ivorian Minister of Industry and Mines who called on other producing countries to join the CICC, it is important to reverse the trend regarding the challenge of processing since Africa does not exceed 10% of processing while it produces more than half of the world’s cashew production (1.5 million tonnes) of which the prize goes to Côte d’Ivoire (more than 700 thousand tonnes).
As a prelude to this first session of the Council of Ministers of the International Cashew Consultative Council (CICC), a meeting of experts from the said organization was held this Thursday in Abidjan. These experts, about forty, representing the ministers of agriculture, trade and industry of the 12 invited member countries of the CICC, worked on the draft documents submitted for validation by the Council of Ministers on September 29, 2017.
A presentation of the draft documents was made by a facilitator to open the discussions under the guidance of a presidium set up by the participants.
Opening of the meeting of experts in prelude to the first Council of Ministers of the CICC in Abidjan on September 28, 2017.
Family photo of the meeting of experts in prelude to the first Council of Ministers of the CICC on September 28, 2017 in Abidjan
