City receives payments from New York Chocolate

City receives payments from New York Chocolate
by Andrew Henderson

May 13, 2006

Calling it a good sign for the future of chocolate production in the former Nestle plant, Fulton Mayor Daryl Hayden received two checks this week from New York Chocolate and Confections Company officials to cover delinquent amounts owed by the Ivory Coast company to the city.

Mayor Hayden visited the chocolate company Tuesday and left with a check in the amount of more than $170,000 to cover what the company owed for water-andsewer services. The city has since restored water service to the plant.

The mayor also received a check Thursday morning for more than $450,000 to cover what the company owed in county, city, and school taxes.

"They are all paid up," Mayor Hayden declared. "They said they would pay up and they did."

In late March, a delegation of government officials from the Ivory Coast traveled to Fulton to tour the plant and address the company's debt. Because of the company's outstanding debt to National Grid and to the city, natural gas and water services were shut off. The company owed a substantial amount of money to the Oswego County Industrial Development Agency, as well.

With the bills being paid, production of chocolate might begin if the Ivory Coast government sees fit to invest more money into the Fulton plant. New York Chocolate CEO Jean-Claude Amon said in March that the company is poised to launch chocolate production immediately, but there had been a delay in funding from the African company because of a change in trade and agricultural regulations as a result of governmental transition.

"I talked to the plant manager and he said that it looked like they will be investing more money to run the plant," Mayor Hayden noted.

In May of 2003, Nestle corporate officials closed their Fulton plant and transferred production to Brazil. Nestle had been producing chocolate locally for more than 100 years when the plant closed.

After Nestle left Fulton, two companies, New York Chocolate and The Fulton Chocolate Company, purchased the assets and sought to produce chocolate in Fulton. New York Chocolate, backed by a consortium of cocoa-bean growers from the Ivory Coast, purchased the building and most of the equipment.

In July of 2004, New York Chocolate purchased the assets of The Fulton Chocolate Company to become the sole owner and operator of the plant.

New York Chocolate would be the African cocoa-bean growers' first chocolate producing plant. Farmers in the Ivory Coast produce 40 percent of the world's share of cocoa beans, but have never had a facility of their own to produce chocolate.