05:08 a.m. Jul 15, 1999 Eastern

ABIDJAN, July 15 (Reuters) - Ivory Coast and Ghana, the world's leading cocoa producers, said they had agreed to consult each other on cocoa sales from the 1999/2000 (Oct-Sept) season and had set up structures to improve coordination.

A two-day meeting of ministers and experts from the two countries ended in Abidjan late on Wednesday.

In a statement on the outcome of the meeting, the two countries said they would ``create and reinforce the conditions for a policy of forward sales of their respective output from the start of the 1999/2000 season.''

Ivory Coast is liberalising its cocoa sector from the start of the coming season. Ministers from Ivory Coast and Ghana have expressed concern that the result could be more spot sales which, they believe, would tend to depress prices.

The two countries, wich together produce almost 70 percent of world cocoa, agreed to ``optimise their volume of production in relation to world demand'' and to put in place ``a vigorous policy of defending the quality of the exportable produce and of information management.''

Ivory Coast has said it would set up its own cocoa exchange.

The statement said the Ghanaian delegation ``noted'' the decision to set up a physical cocoa exchange.

``The two delegations have decided to follow the evolution of this question with a view to setting up a regional exchange,'' it added.

The various cocoa industry institutions in each country -- notably Ivory Coast's New Caistab and the Cocoa Board of Ghana (COCOBOD) -- would aim for ``systematic concertation'' and a joint ministerial committee would meet twice a year.

A committee of experts from the two countries would meet ``as often as necessary.''

The statement was signed by Ivory Coast's Agriculture Minister Lambert Kouassi Konan and Foreign Trade Minister Guy-Alain Gauze. Finance Minister Kwame Peprah and COCOBOD Managing Director John Henry Newman signed for Ghana.