“This would benefit the city and benefit the country and prices would drop, because we are now buying cocoa beans through intermediaries,” Irina Abramova noted
MOSCOW, March 1. /TASS/. Construction of a throughput terminals for cocoa beans exported from Africa to Russia in St. Petersburg will help to reduce chocolate feedstock prices, Director of the Institute of Africa of the Russian Academy of Sciences Irina Abramova said.
Russia ranks third globally in terms of consumption of this product, she reminded. The throughput terminal for raw materials coming to Russia, built as early as in times of the USSR, is located in Estonia.
“[Construction of such terminal in St. Petersburg] would be an excellent incentive for the city <…> and there would be direct supplies from Ivory Coast and Ghana for us. We are now scaling up [exports] from Ecuador but how much should we carry [from there]?” Abramova said. “This would benefit the city and benefit the country and prices would drop, because we are now buying cocoa beans through intermediaries,” the expert added.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, production of chocolate and items containing cocoa increased by 6.3% in Russia in January 2024 to 76,200 metric tons.
Source: Tass
