Determined to make the most of the national cocoa, which is still too often sold in its raw state, the Ivorian authorities have undertaken a series of projects to strengthen the country’s processing and storage capacities: the construction of two new cocoa grinding plants and around ten warehouses has been approved by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. As for the financing of these facilities, according to sources reported by the weekly Jeune Afrique, it should be made possible by means of a loan « of about 330 million euros » from Chinese operators, already active in the Ivorian cocoa industry. The best known of these is the Chinese state-owned company China Light Industry Design Co Ltd, which had already signed a similar agreement in December with the Coffee-Cocoa Council for the construction of cocoa processing plants and storage warehouses in Abidjan and San Pedro.