18 • ICO Report • C&CI March 2012


t the same time, Mr Oliveira Silva has not been neglecting administra- tive matter at home – an area in which his backers have high hopes of movement in the coming months. Mr Oliveira Silva was elected the ICO’s Executive Director on a platform of reform (see C&CI, November 2011, page 16), something that he is convinced is even more necessary now that he has had sev- eral months in the job. The high cost of the ICO’s premises in Central London, where he sees scope to reduce the space occupied, is the most pressing matter that he has to deal with, he told Coffee & Cocoa International. He wants savings made and the money used to better pur- pose and reckons that, after talks with the landlord and commercial property agents, he is making "firm progress."


Reducing running costs


ICO member governments are paying £2.894 million towards the agency’s esti- mated running costs of £3.22 million in the current 2011/12 (October-September) cof- fee year, with the balance coming from, among other sources, renting out the agency’s conference facilities and interest on its reserves. With rent accounting for 22 per cent of this outlay and staff 60 per cent, very little is left for anything else – something that not only Mr Silva said in his election campaign had to change, but so did his main rival, Mexico’s Rodolfo Trampe Taubert.


Where feasible, Mr Oliveira Silva has said that, in drawing up his reform programme and the broader long-term strategy for the ICO, he will incorporate ideas put forward by Trampe Taubert and the other defeated candidate, India’s G V Krishna Rau. But at the same time as working on administrative matters, the ICO’s new Chief Executive is also determined to maintain the ICO’s international profile as high as possible and use every opportuni- ty to drive home his message that export-


New Executive Director hits the ground running A


It has been a busy time for the International Coffee Organization’s new boss since he took up his post last


November. As Robin Stainer reports, Robério Oliveira Silva has been to Africa, Asia and South America to explain the role he envisages for the agency in the years ahead


Mr Oliveira Silva came to office with a plan to revitalise the ICO and reduce its running costs


The ICO’s new Executive Director believes that development projects have a key role to play helping coffee farmers such as this one in Colombia (photo: Neil Palmer, CIAT)


ing and importing countries must work closely together through his agency to find ways of meeting the challenges ahead for the coffee industry. "We cannot be compla- cent," he insisted. "Prices may be comfort- able now, but we have to provide for time when the market won’t be so healthy", adding that the ICO’s new consultative forum on coffee sector finance would be the "ideal place" to carry discussions on this forward.


Running up


the air miles On his travels, Mr Oliveira Silva has so far visited Kenya, Vietnam, Brazil and, his latest trip in January, India, meeting key local cof- fee industry players, as well as government ministers and officials. In his speeches, he has outlined the big changes in the coffee economy over the past 20 years and more, as interventionist policies were replaced by the liberalisation of marketing, and the big challenges faced by the coffee sector. He lists among these price volatility (always a danger in a market like coffee


with its boom-bust cyclical patter caused primarily by weather-related fluctuations in supply), limited access to finance, the importance of developing a sustainable economy, climate change, quality and health issues, rising labour costs and strengthening the competiveness of the coffee sector. Other problems include fluc- tuating exchange rates, often poorly organized farmers and poor local infra- structure, low productivity and rising pro- duction costs.


Mr Oliveira Silva’s message is that, in such an environment, international co- operation to support the coffee industry in producing countries becomes ever more vital. One way to do this – as he told the 4th India International Coffee Festival in New Delhi in January and the Annual General Assembly of the 25-nation InterAfrican Coffee Organization (IACO) in Nairobi in November – is through develop- ment projects, an area in which the ICO has had considerable success. Over the years, the agency has helped secure US$103 million, mainly from the Common Fund for Commodities, for the 35 projects it has sponsored.


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