Belgian Arrion new head of International Cacao Organisation

Former EU ambassador Michel Arrion is appointed as the new head of the ICCO, the International Cacao Organisation. The Belgian’s mission is to deal with the challenges of the industry, such as deforestation and child labour.

Africa expert

Over the next five years Arrion will be leading the ICCO, which was founded in 1973 to improve the collaboration between importing and exporting cacao countries. To that end, the organisation collects, processes and publishes stastistics and information about the cacao market. This is done in collaboration with the industry and NGOs. The intent is to make the cacao market more sustainable, more transparent and more rewarding for small cacao farmers.

As former ambassador for the European Union in countries such as Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria and Rwanda, Arrion is quite familiar with Africa. He will be succeeding the Ivorian Jean Marc Anga, who had been leading the ICCO since 2010 and moved the headquarters of his organisation to his home country, more precisely Abidjan, last year. Côte d’Ivoire is the biggest cacao manufacturer in the world. The country formerly known as Ivory Coast raised the farmers’ salaries earlier this week, now that cacao prices across the globe have been somewhat repaired.