| Abstract: | During the 1990s, both the European chocolate industry and thecocoa butter industry have become increasingly centralised.Today only a handful of companies in each segment control theproduction of intermediate goods and massmarketed brands. Thecocoa sectors of the major producing countries in West Africahave at the same time been liberalised and privatised due tothe dismantling of state marketing boards. This paper examinesthe relationship between the new raw material requirements (bothin qualitative and quantitative terms) of the processing industryin Europe and restructuring processes in the cocoa sectors ofmajor African producer countries. |
