Your Excellency Minister Coulibaly,

Excellencies,

dear Mr Christiansen,

dear Mr Bittinger,

dear Vice-President of the Hamburg Parliament Mrs Duden,

ladies and gentlemen,

Welcome to the City Hall of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg! I am very pleased that we are hosting the Senate reception to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the German Cocoa Trade Association.” And this is not only because I am looking forward to relishing a couple of delicious sweets at your traditional Cocoa Dinner” but also because this is an anniversary for the city of Hamburg, too.

Today we are celebrating not only the founding of your organisation, with its rich history, in 1911, but also 100 years of successful collaboration between the Cocoa Association and Hamburg, which has thrived on mutual confidence. Since this is such an important milestone, I would like to take a look into the past and the future with you.

In the year your organization was founded, the global economy looked quite a bit different than it does today. Cocoa, coffee and tobacco were luxury goods. The cocoa trade in Europe had experienced its first boom in the 19th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, the appetite for cocoa and chocolate as well as other such products imported from far-away places was constantly growing. And Hamburg had become more and more important as a transshipment point for the delicate cocoa beans.

From the very beginning, Hamburg’s geographical location made it an ideal hub for the cocoa trade. When news of the alluring cocoa beans from Spain reached Hamburg, Hanseatic merchants quickly sensed that this was a golden opportunity. They built storage facilities and warehouses and acquired the expertise they needed to handle this special commodity. And Hamburg contributed the necessary infrastructure.

The Kakao-Verein, as it is called for short in Germany, was set up to protect the interests of companies involved in the cocoa trade, at home and abroad. At the time, Hamburg had already been a member of the German Customs Union for over twenty years. The city and its free port had become global players,” with a warehouse district that served as a visible symbol and with great self-confidence and sense of purpose. The Old Elbe Tunnel was constructed to enable the more than 50,000 port and shipyard workers to get to their workplaces, for example, unloading the rising tonnages of sacks of cocoa. In fact, we have just celebrated its 100th birthday as well.

A half-century later, in the 1960s, a number of African countries became independent. At that time, the cocoa craze,” along with the export and import of the coveted beans, reached unforeseen dimensions. In Western Africa, particularly in the new Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, referred to as Ivory Coast in English, cocoa bean farming was expanded extensively. Other cocoa producers like Malaysia were added. In the eighties and nineties, the Ivorian economy became dominant in the cocoa trade, a position it has maintained up to the present. Between 1980 and 1998, the country was able to more than quadruple its cocoa production. In the course of these 18 years, the Ivorian share of German cocoa imports rose to 77 percent. And this also increased the confidence of the cocoa-producing countries.

Today trade with Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Malaysia, Indonesia and Ecuador is a true partnership. The Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg works together with the Cocoa Association to achieve the best possible trading conditions.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We are well aware that one hundred years ago and even several decades after that views as to what constituted optimum trading conditions were very different. We also know that the cocoa trade began as business between two unequal partners: on the one hand, the rich colonial powers; on the other, the poor suppliers of commodities.

The history of German colonialism was also marked by the exploitation of cheap labour. There were horrifying accounts of conditions on some plantations.

This chapter in our history is certainly not one to be proud of, and this applies to Hamburg as well. But it was in fact the beginning of our trade with countries that are represented here this evening. And today we aim at trading with them under conditions that are characterised by respect, with a shared responsibility for worldwide growth, social equity, and economic and ecological stability. Working toward a globalisation of sustainability,” as the former executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, Klaus Töpfer, phrased it.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is the objective of the new Senate in Hamburg to work in line with good that is, pragmatic economic policies. Such policies must maintain and strengthen the capacity of companies to compete successfully. The goal is to ensure that workplaces are safe and that employees are paid fairly. This has always been the case when the port was prospering. The Port of Hamburg will continue to be the solid foundation of our success. It connects German companies with their markets all over the world and through the import of raw materials and semi-finished products, for example ensures the competitiveness of this production location.

Efficient transport routes are necessary for successful port operations. As you undoubtedly know, we want to further deepen the Elbe which leads to the Port of Hamburg. Because Hamburg wants to continue to be Europe’s largest loading site for cocoa, the port must be accessible for the transport of large containers. After all, cocoa beans are no longer shipped in sacks, but loose in containers. And the Hamburg Senate has to take this into consideration, too. I am very optimistic that the European Commission will agree to the deepening of the Elbe in the very near future.

But how do the cocoa beans get to the processing companies and from there to the stores? By truck and by train! And this requires good links to roads and rails.

As part of the work program of the Senate, we are committed to ensuring better long-distance transportation links for Hamburg. We are working in collaboration with other North German states to achieve these goals, through the federal government as well. These objectives include expansion of the railway system toward Poland, the Czech Republic and Austria. Also involved are bypasses and better links to newly built or existing highways.

To me, this also includes supporting small and medium-sized businesses in Hamburg, which are an essential pillar of our economy in any case. After all, it is not only the well-known names among the Hamburg merchants that are connected with the German Cocoa Trade Association.” The cocoa trade also relies on the many small and medium-sized companies that earn their money with cocoa and chocolate products. It is also for them that we are planning an Alliance for small and medium enterprises (Bündnis für den Mittelstand”).

All of this is what I mean when I speak of efficient trade relations and the free flow of goods” in the Hamburg Port Marketing brochure!

Hamburg intends to continue to be a good home and one of the best locations for the global cocoa trade for the Cocoa Association for the next 100 years. Together, we shall and can face future challenges on the global market. For they are coming, as you all know. Prices have risen considerably in recent years, due to an increase in demand and a decrease in production. And an additional player has appeared on the scene, one who is exerting considerable pressure on the price of cocoa: the financial investor. Since the beginning of the last decade, commodities speculators have gained considerable power over the cocoa futures market.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

This evening should not be overshadowed by predictions of this kind. After all, you are all here to celebrate and I would hope enjoy a piece or two of chocolate.

I would like to congratulate you all on this proud occasion and wish you and us continued successful collaboration.

Many thanks!

Es gilt das gesprochene Wort.