Meeting on September 23, 2026, in the Council of Ministers, the government adopted a communication relating to the creation of the Coffee and Cocoa Institute (I2C). The future center will be located in Divo, on the site of the research station of the National Center for Agronomic Research (CNRA), an area already researching cocoa. It must bring together cutting-edge technologies, specialized skills and Ivorian and international scientific partners. The choice of Divo is not trivial. The CNRA station, created in 1957 and spread over 3,520 hectares, has been devoted to research on coffee and cocoa for several decades. It notably houses genetic resources and experimental plots.The CNRA is already working on varietal improvement, cultivation techniques and the fight against cocoa tree diseases. This reality gives all its interest to the creation of I2C. It is not a question of starting from a blank page, but of strengthening an existing scientific system. Research funded by FIRCA and carried out with the CNRA has already made it possible to identify hybrid families displaying, under experimental conditions, yields of 2.7 to 3.5 tonnes per hectare, as well as clones resistant to certain diseases.

Transforming research to meet global requirements

The government assigns the institute a specific mission: to take up the scientific initiative on coffee and cocoa in order to respond to the challenges of competitiveness and the standards of the world market. The real challenge will therefore be the transition from research to the field. Diseases, renewal of orchards, improvement of plant material and adaptation to climatic constraints require responses directly accessible to producers. The achievements already exist. The institute will now have to help make them change scale.