Barry Callebaut expands its cocoa processing capacities in Côte d’Ivoire
Barry Callebaut inaugurated its new state-of-the-art processing unit at its Zone 4C Société Africaine de Cacao (SACO) plant in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, on March 29, 2019. The new grinding unit, part of a CHF 55 million (FCFA 30 billion) investment, will increase SACO’s cocoa bean processing capacity with over +40.0 percent by 2022. Once the processing unit is fully operational, Barry Callebaut will employ an additional workforce of 45 people and create 120 indirect jobs.
"This significant investment in our cocoa processing capacities in Côte d’Ivoire is one more sign of our long term commitment to the country and to the African continent. Not only as a supplier of high quality cocoa beans but also as an industrial base and as an emerging market for cocoa and chocolate consumption, as is also exemplified by last year’s opening of our first CHOCOLATE ACADEMY Center on the African continent in Johannesburg, South Africa," said Antoine de Saint-Affrique, CEO of the Barry Callebaut Group.