Director General of the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT Juan Lucas Restrepo: “the Alliance’s Cacao of Excellence programme has the means, tools and knowledge to focus on origins and unlock value for cacao farmers and consumers”
Montpellier, France.
In his keynote address to the world’s largest cacao research conference, the Director General of the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Juan Lucas Restrepo welcomed participants to the second International Symposium on Cocoa Research (ISCR) and underscored the importance of driving research innovation to empower actors across cacao value chains.
Held from 5-7 December 2022 in Montpellier, France by the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) and CIRAD (the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development), this year’s theme delves into innovations that support market development and promote the sustainability of cacao farming for better farmer incomes.
Cacao of Excellence Acting Director, Brigitte Laliberte, together with Cacao of Excellence’s Head of Lab and Food Scientist, Dolores Alvarado and Data Scientist Neil Slettehaugh , are joining cacao scientists, producers, cooperatives, traders, chocolate makers, policymakers and members of civil society to shed light on the future of cacao value chains and advocate for solutions that boost cacao producers’ incomes and improve their livelihoods.
The Director General noted the criticality of increasing efforts to bring new knowledge to the cacao sector. “Combined knowledge, capacity and learnings on cacao will help us meet this important value proposition we are committed to delivering on for the cacao sector.” he said.
For its part, Cacao of Excellence will be presenting on innovative and accessible digital tools to evaluate the physical quality of cacao, and the development of cacao physical reference samples towards the training and calibration of sensory evaluation panels. Sharing these new and improved technologies and ideas allows the cacao research community to gain important insights into how cacao-producing countries can better recognize, seek out and preserve quality and diversity in cacao.
The symposium is comprised of three days of debate with 500 participants and more than 75 presentations, with simultaneous translation in English, French and Spanish.
Watch Director General Juan Lucas Restrepo make his keynote address via pre-recorded video, on our youtube channel.
