Barry Callebaut upgrading Ivory Coast factory

* World's largest chocolate maker to add 70,000 tonnes

* Investment coming back to crisis-torn Ivory Coast

By Ange Aboa

ABIDJAN, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Barry Callebaut , the world's largest maker of chocolate products, plans to upgrade grinding capacity at its cocoa processing plant in Ivory Coast to 175,000 tonnes a year from 105,000 tonnes now, its CEO said.

Investment is trickling back into the world's top cocoa grower, after years of crisis and instability culminated in a brief civil war over a disputed November election.

President Alassane Ouattara is wooing foreign capital to try to revive what was once West Africa's star economy and launch badly needed infrastructure projects.

Ivory Coast, whose cocoa feeds a third of world demand, is on track to become the world's top cocoa grinder in the next few years as it seeks more value from cocoa exports.

"We have big investments here and we have already started new investment in (the cocoa exporting port of) San Pedro. We have faith in this country," CEO Juergen Steinemann said after a meeting on Wednesday with Ouattara and Ivorian Finance Minister Charles Koffi Diby.

"We're putting in place an additional new factory which will grind 70,000 tonnes of cocoa a year."

Investments in cocoa processing facilities in Ivory Coast have pushed its share of grindings up sharply since 2008 and may soon allow it to overtake the Netherlands for the top spot.

The government offers what cocoa traders say are some attractive tax breaks for grinders and unlike many of its poorer neighbours, it usually has enough electricity.

Barry Callebaut, which makes chocolates for groups such as Nestle and Hershey , expects the global chocolate market to grow above 2 percent, Steinemann said in June, adding that it wants to do better than the market.

The Swiss company provides liquid chocolate, coatings, cocoa powders and the like to food manufacturers which often opt for outsourcing chocolate production to cut costs.

"Ivory Coast for us is the most important country for cocoa and we have a natural partnership because Barry Callebaut is the biggest chocolate maker in the world," Steinemann said. (Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Anthony Barker)