Davis takes over the role from Harold Poelma and said: “I am extremely proud and humbled to have been elected to the President of the European Cocoa Association and will seek to continue and build on the extraordinary work of the ECA team and so many previous Board Members, particularly Harold Poelma, who chaired the Association Board through a particularly challenging time during the pandemic.”
Under Poelma’s presidency, the ECA has significantly developed its regulatory activities on sustainability, as well as on trade, food safety, environment, and logistics - and its membership has increased by 35% since 2019.
“The ECA does exceptional work in supporting the interests of its members and the sector in general. Europe is the most important customer to the cocoa sector and the Association seeks to build confidence in an ever-developing, competitive, efficient trade and industry in the European family. We will continue to work on seeking and achieving balance, fairness and responsibility within our sector for the benefit of all working in cocoa from ‘farm to fork’,” he said.
Davis began his career in cocoa in 1987, qualifying as a floor trader for Pacol Ltd, part of the Gill and Duffus Group that merged into ED&F Man in 1988. He served as Managing Director of ED&F Man Cocoa Ltd from 1997 until 2006. Davis joined Tropix Capital, part of Ospraie Wingspan in 2006 in both Connecticut and London until 2012 when he joined the Noble Group as Director and Global Head of Cocoa.
He then joined Sucres & Denrées in 2016 to take over as Head of Cocoa in their Paris Headquarters, where he currently works. Davis rejoined the ECA Board as a trade member in 2018 serving as vice chairman from 2019, and he has also served on the Council of the Federation of Cocoa Commerce from 1999 to 2009, as Chairman from 2006, elected for a second term in 2018.
The announcement of Davis’s appointment was made at the ECA’s General Assembly where Patrick Poirrier, Vice President of Cocoa at Cémoi, was appointed as the ECA Vice-President, and Christian Vollers, Managing Director at Vollers Group GmbH, reappointed as the ECA Treasurer. Davis, Poirrier and Vollers will form the new ECA Executive Committee.
For the next two years, the ECA Board of Directors will include:
Harold Poelma (President Cargill Cocoa & Chocolate), Steven Retzlaff (President of Global Cocoa, Barry Callebaut), Patrick de Boussac (CEO, Touton), Gerard A. Manley (CEO, OFI Cocoa), Christophe Vandierendonck (Managing Director Commodities, Katoen Natie), Enrico Pacorini (CEO, Pacorini Group), Guus de Gruiter (Deputy CEO, ECOM Cocoa), Hubert Hoondert (Founder/Managing Director, Cocoasource) and the three members of the Executive Committee.