The State of Sustainable Markets 2022

First published in 2015, this report is now updated annually on the state of sustainable markets. The International Trade Centre has teamed up once again with the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture and the International Institute for Sustainable Development to provide data about 14 major sustainability standards for bananas, cocoa, coffee, cotton, forestry products, oil palm, soybeans, sugarcane and tea.

The report presents market and statistical data on these sectors as well as at-a-glance tables on products and the following standards: 4C Services (4C), Better Cotton, Bonsucro, Cotton made in Africa (CmiA), Fairtrade International (Fairtrade), Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), GLOBALG.A.P., IFOAM – Organics International (organic), the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), ProTerra Foundation (ProTerra), Rainforest Alliance (Rainforest), the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the Round Table on Responsible Soy (RTRS) and UTZ.

Data from the latest survey (2020 data) demonstrate how certified agriculture and forestry continue to grow, in line with an expanding global population and increasing demand for sustainable products. The rising share of total area and production volume covered by voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) suggests there is significant potential for further growth.

Download the report

 

 

Cocoa Barometer 2022

The 2022 Cocoa Barometer was released on December 7 by the Cocoa Barometer Consortium, 

Written by Antonie Fountain and Friedel Huetz-Adams, "the 2022 Cocoa Barometer provides an overview of the current sustainability developments in the cocoa sector and highlights critical issues that are not receiving sufficient attention at present, discussing a broad range of social, economic, and environmental issues."

The findings include the following: "Living income is a human right, and a necessary precondition for all the other challenges in the cocoa sector to be properly addressed. And though it has become an accepted goal for the cocoa sector, there is a lack of concrete and time-bound commitments towards a living income, either by individual companies, by governments, or by sector-wide initiatives. Living income must become mandatory, and therefore enshrined in the due diligence regulations being drafted presently.
(...) In all this, there is very little conversation about the industry’s business model, including about how they set the prices they pay. As a result, most farmers are still not earning a living income, and not a single stakeholder group is currently doing what they should be doing to ensure farmers achieve a living income.
(...)
For living income to become a reality for cocoa farmers, action is necessary on three separate dimensions at the same time: good agricultural practices, good governance policies, and good purchasing practices. Any corporate or government effort that does not move significantly on all three dimensions at the same time will not be an adequate response to the challenge. However, not all three dimensions have an equal status. Good Agricultural Practices are only a worthwhile strategy if cocoa is sufficiently remunerative. Only when both the responsibilities of corporations and governments are properly being met does it become fair to ask farmers to invest effort and money in improving their productivity. The burden to first move lies squarely with the companies and the governments in the cocoa sector."

The cocoa barometer is available to download in English from cocoabarometer.org. Executive summary is available in English, French and Spanish.

#cocoa, #livingincome, #sustainableliving #cocoaproduction #chocolate #cacao #chocolat #revenu #BeyondChocolate #childslavery #durabilité, #CommerceEquitable #FairTrade #ODD, #sustainability

U.S. senators demand more federal action to stop cocoa imports made with forced child labour

U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) sent a letter to Kevin McAleenan, Acting Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, calling on the Administration to enforce existing law and investigate and block any cocoa imports produced with forced child labour.

The Senators’ letter follows a Washington Post report detailing the prevalence of child labour in the production of cocoa imported to the U.S. by large chocolate companies. These companies, including Hershey, Mars and Nestle, originally agreed to eradicate child labour from their supply chains in West Africa by 2005.

“The global cocoa trade is significant, and the U.S. is a large importer of cocoa products.  In 2018 alone, the U.S. imported $608 million of cocoa beans from the Ivory Coast, in addition to $100 million of cocoa paste. Given the prevalence of forced child labour in the Ivory Coast’s cocoa sector, it is clear at least some, if not a significant portion of those imports, were produced with forced child labour.  It is time the U.S. took more aggressive action to combat forced child labour in the cocoa sector and to fully enforce Section 1307 as Congress intended,” the Senators wrote.

"More than 20 years ago, the Department of Labour (DOL) and Congress worked with large chocolate companies to develop a framework to eradicate child labour from their supply chains in West Africa, which sources the vast majority of cocoa worldwide.  These companies committed to eradicating child labour from cocoa production in West African countries, including the Ivory Coast, by 2005.   Unfortunately, they missed that deadline and several subsequent ones, and the widespread use of child labour in the sector persists.  According to DOL, more than two million children continue to perform the hazardous work of harvesting cocoa in West Africa." 

In their letter, the Senators press Acting Secretary McAleenan to instruct Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) to block cocoa imports made with forced labour and, where appropriate, pursue criminal investigations.

A copy of the Senators’ letter can be found HERE.

Fairtrade becomes a member of ICI (International Cocoa Initiative)

From: International Cocoa Initiative

Fairtrade International has joined the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) as a Non-Profit Contributing Partner. The partnership will allow the two organisations to improve their existing operating models and reach more children and their families in cocoa communities in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana to achieve a shared goal of eliminating child labour and enabling child protection.

Read more about the partnership

Illegal cocoa in Swiss chocolate

From: RTS
In Côte d’Ivoire, the Maraouhé park is one of the last remaining wild forests,  a sanctuary for the last 200 to 400 elephants in the country.
This forest is however threatened by cocoa. Illegal growers cut old trees and replace them with cocoa trees, as the RTS (French-speaking Swiss television company) was able to verify on the spot. Once in the warehouses of local cooperatives, the beans are mixed with cocoa from other plantations. Traceability is lost. These bags with mixed cocoa are resold as UTZ cocoa and end up in a regional headquarters of Cargill.  Local Cargill employees explained to the RTS that the cocoa is resold to Nestlé and exported to Europe.

Read François Ruchti's article and watch the RTS report.

Living income for cocoa producers in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire

One of the objectives of the Belgian "Beyond Chocolate" partnership is to achieve a "living income" for cocoa producers by 2030. Here are the latest studies on living income for cocoa producers in Ivory Coast and Ghana.

Around the world, it's the methodology first developed for the ILO by Richard and Martha Anker (Anker methodology) that is used to calculate a living wage.  In July 2018, the Living Income Community of Practice, co-hosted by GIZ, ISEAL and the Sustainable Food Lab and the GIZ Programme “Sustainable Supply Chains and Standards” produced “Considerations for the use of the Anker methodology for calculating living wages to inform living income estimates.”

The Living Income Community of Practice calculates ‘Living Income’ Benchmarks for the cocoa producing regions in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. The Living Income Benchmark studies estimate the net income required for a decent standard of living for a typical family in these regions.

Ghana

The study “Analysis of the income gap of cocoa producing households in Ghana” (KIT) estimates a Living Income Benchmark in rural cocoa growing areas of Ghana to be GHS 21,100 (USD 4,742) per year for a typical male-headed household (up to 4 ha of productive land) of 3.5 adults and 2.5 children. Female-headed households of 3 adults and 2 children have a Benchmark of GHS 17,806 (USD 4,001) per year. Male-headed households with large land size (more than 4 ha of productive land) composed of 3.5 adults and 3 children have a Benchmark of GHS 22,799 (USD 5,123) per year.

The study “Living Income Report Rural Ghana” (University of Ghana) estimates a Living Income in rural cocoa growing areas of Ghana (Ashanti, Central, Eastern, and Western Regions) to be GHS 1,464 ($329) per month for a typical family of two adults and three children.

Côte d’Ivoire

The study “Analysis of the income gap of cocoa producing households in Côte d’Ivoire” (KIT) estimates a Living Income Benchmark in rural cocoa growing areas of Côte d’Ivoire to be CFA 3,759,281 (USD 6,517) per year for a typical male-headed household (up to 4 ha of productive land) of 3.5 adults and 3.5 children.

The study “Living Income Report Rural Côte d’Ivoire” (CIRES) estimate a Living Income in rural cocoa growing regions of Côte d’Ivoire (Gôh, Loh Djiboua, Nawa, Mé, Agnéby, Tonkpi, Indénié-Djuablin, Sud-Comoé and San-Pedro) to be CFA 262,056 ($454) per month for a typical family of two adults and four children.

Earlier, in April 2018, True Price and Fairtrade published a study that estimates a living income for a typical 8-member household in Côte d’Ivoire to be USD 7,318 per year.

Having defined living incomes, strategies to close the income gap for smallholder farmers (Côte d’Ivoire and Indonesia) are needed. This piece of research has been conducted by AidEnvironment on behalf of the Living Income Community of Practice.

A two-day event was held in Bonn on the 30th and 31st of January 2019 to support learning, action and collaboration around the topic of Living Income. To access all of the presentations and resources from the event visit: https://www.living-income.com/bonnevent2019

More and more Belgian chocolatiers going from bean to bar

The production process that turns the cocoa bean into a chocolate bar requires many intermediary steps and involves multinational corporations. 

More and more chocolatiers all over the world now want to take the whole process in their own hands. Their raw material of choice is not liquid factory-supplied ‘couverture chocolate’ delivered in large cisterns, but cocoa beans which they personally select in the South. This growing group of artisanal chocolatiers – known as the bean-to-bar movement – resolutely targets quality rather than mass production and looks for top-range beans with exquisite flavours. 

Their work mostly results in a good relationship with cocoa growers and fair pay for the growers’ tough labour.

A new publication of the Trade for Development Centre

Germany’s call for cocoa regulation tightens pressure on the European Commission

Source: FERN

The German government has called for European “binding regulations” to set a standard for sustainably-produced cocoa.  The call was made as part of a national 10-point Action Plan for cocoa, launched on 23 January by German Agriculture Minister Julia Kloeckner and Development Minister Gerd Mueller. The 10-point Action Plan sets out how the German government plans to address rampant deforestation and child labour in the cocoa sector.  The Action Plan also proposes to train farmers in sustainable cocoa production and strengthen the role of women in the cocoa sector.

The call echoes similar statements from the French and Belgian governments at the end of 2018, where both called for the “rapid adoption” of an EU due diligence regulation to tackle child labour and deforestation in the cocoa sector. Chocolate companies have expressed similar views, concluding at the April 2018 World Cocoa Conference in Berlin that their voluntary commitments to end child labour and deforestation had “not led to sufficient impact”, and that there was a need to look at “potential regulatory measures by governments.”  

At a European Commission event in Brussels on 24 January 2019, Mondelez (the world’s second-largest chocolate company) expressed their “strong support” for “harmonized EU legislation to create a level playing field” in the cocoa sector.

Germany’s 10-point Action Plan comes just as the European Commission launches its open consultation (to close 25 February 2019) on “Stepping up EU Action on deforestation and forest degradation”, which sets out how the EU will address deforestation resulting from its consumption of cocoa, amongst other things. The EU is by quite a long way the world’s largest importer of cocoa, responsible for over 60% of global cocoa bean imports. 

Julia Christian, forests campaigner at the NGO Fern, said: “Europeans consume the majority of the world’s cocoa, so we are very much responsible for the nearly 2 million children working in the cocoa sector in West Africa, as well as the near-total destruction of forests in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana." 

'Envoyé spécial" documentary on cocoa: Children trapped

A documentary on child labour in Côte d’Ivoire deserves being watched (in French). It was first broadcast on 10 January 2019 for the French television’s ‘Envoyé spécial’ programme.

Côte d’Ivoire, globally the biggest producer of cocoa “has really endeavoured to stop a scourge which is a perceived disgrace to the country. Schools have been built; cocoa-growers have been trained. On TV people are frequently reminded that child labour is prohibited. Unfortunately, children are still exploited’.

In the very west of the country, at eight hours of the country’s capital, near the border with Liberia, in remote forests Paul Moreira, a journalist, came across children, some of which had been working for five years... for free on illegal plantations, before they were given a small plot of land to earn just… 200 euros per year. 

The children came from Burkina Faso to the Guiglo area. They were sold by their parents for approximately 200 000 FCFA (300 euros) to work in cocoa plantations. Approximately, because, as one dealer unveils in the documentary: “Like sheep on the market, they may be more or less expensive.”

Children, some of which are still very young, head for the plantations with chemicals sprayers on their backs. They wear no protective gear — which they would not be able to pay for — while they spray loads of glyphosate to kill the weeds on the plots before the remaining trees are burned down and cacao trees are planted.  

In just one week in Côte d’Ivoire’s south-western forests, Paul Moreira “discovered all crimes which the industry undertook to stop: slavery, child labour and the destruction of nature”. Meanwhile, bags of cocoa enter the mainstream cocoa trade circuit. These bags cannot be traced because they are not labelled and in this particular case are delivered to Cargill, which resells the cocoa to big chocolate brands.

Elsewhere in Côte d’Ivoire children skip school too. Cocoa growers often lack the means to send their children to school. According to a study by the French development agency (AfD) and Barry Callebaut^[1] cocoa growers earn an average 0.86 euro per day. The documentary points out that cocoa growers earned three times that much in the 1980s and raises the question: “Why not a simple cocoa price hike to stop children from working in the fields?“ 

The investigation documentary by Paul Moreira and Pedro Brito Da Fonseca is available (in French) on: https://www.francetvinfo.fr/monde/afrique/economie-africaine/video-cacao-les-enfants-pris-au-piege_3134883.html

Meanwhile, most producers earn a pittance whereas big corporations continue to make huge profits. Two examples among others: Cargill reported 9 % net earnings increase year-over-year in 2018. According to the annual report of the company "the increasing earnings in food ingredients and applications in particular was lifted by outstanding performance in cocoa and chocolate"^[2]. Barry Callebaut announced a 31 % rise in net profit for the same period^[3]

.

[1] Gaëlle Balineau (AFD), Safia Bernath (Barry Callebaut), Vaihei Pahuatini, Cocoa farmers’ agricultural practices and livelihoods in Côte d’Ivoire, Insights from cocoa farmers and community baseline surveys conducted by Barry Callebaut between 2013 and 2015, Technical notes, AfD.

[2] https://www.cargill.com/doc/1432124831909/2018-annual-report.pdf

[3] https://www.confectionerynews.com/Article/2018/11/07/Barry-Callebaut-announces-31-rise-in-net-profit-2017-18?utm_source=copyright&utm_medium=OnSite&utm_campaign=copyright.

TDC supports cocoa producers in Vietnam

TDC worked together with NAPP (Network of Asia and Pacific Producers) and VCA (Vietnam Cooperatives Alliance) to support cocoa producers in the Vietnamese highlands. The project ‘sustainable development of cocoa production starting from cooperative model’ trained 450 farmer families in fair trade practices. The project aimed to create one new cooperative and reinforce two existing ones. Today the farmers produce 500 tons of fair trade certified cocoa beans of a better quality that they can sell at a better price.

Strategic partnership between Tony’s Chocolonely, Albert Heijn and Barry Callebaut sets new industry standard for sourcing cocoa

Dutch impact organization Tony’s Chocolonely, retailer Albert Heijn and chocolate manufacturer Barry Callebaut have forged a strategic partnership to end child labor and modern slavery in the chocolate industry. 

With a mission to make 100% slave-free the norm in chocolate, for years Tony’s Chocolonely has been calling on companies to follow their example for cocoa sourcing based on direct relations with cocoa cooperatives, traceable cocoa and a living income for cocoa farmers. The company shares full details of its transparent supply chain under Tony’s Open Chain – an open-source platform where chocolate companies can access all the expertise needed to eliminate social issues from their own supply chain. The platform includes tools such as Tony’s Beantracker and the Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation System that has been implemented at all Tony’s partner cooperatives. 

Dutch biggest retailer Albert Heijn is the first company to sign up for Tony’s Open Chain, while world-leading chocolate manufacturer Barry Callebaut has enabled the partnership with its expertise in processing the segregated cocoa to chocolate. 

“We have always aimed to be exemplary and inspire others to act. Today our impact is bigger than our chocolate alone. We’re certain that this is just the first step on the journey to change the industry - together make chocolate 100% slave-free.” says Henk Jan Beltman, Chief Chocolate Officer with Tony’s Chocolonely.

From March 2019 Delicata will hit Albert Heijn shelves with chocolate made exclusively from fully traceable cocoa, bought at a higher price from Tony’s Chocolonely partner cooperatives in Ghana and the Ivory Coast. Tony’s Chocolonely’s five sourcing principles enable cocoa farmers to earn a livable income and remove anonymity from the supply chain, knowing exactly who grows the beans and under which circumstances. According to Tony's Chocolonely, extreme poverty is the main cause of lasting social issues in the cocoa industry, issues which will only be resolved when companies go beyond certifications and are willing to pay a higher price than the certification premium. The three parties unveiled the news of their partnership today at the Tony’s FAIR, Tony’s Chocolonely’s annual meeting in Amsterdam. 

Fairtrade raises its cocoa farmer's minimum price by 20%

Fairtrade International has announced the raising of its guaranteed minimum price for cocoa producers. It goes from $ 2,000 to $ 2,400 per metric ton at the point of export (FOB). The additional Fairtrade Premium is also raised by 20%. It will be $ 240 per metric ton instead of $ 200. Fairtrade organic cocoa will cost $ 300 more than the market price or the minimum fair trade price.

These increases follow the failure identified by the organisation itself: 77% of Fairtrade certified cocoa farmers in Côte d'Ivoire are below the poverty line.* 

The new Fairtrade Minimum Price at FOB level would equate to approximately $1,600 per metric tonne at farm gate level in Côte d’Ivoire and is still below the Fairtrade Living Income Reference Prices of $2,668 per metric tonne of cocoa in Côte d’Ivoire and $2,300 in Ghana. Those LIRF prices are based on what the ISEAL Living Income Community of Practice has calculated to be needed in each country to support the average cocoa farming household’s basic costs for food, housing, clothing, health care, education plus a small provision for emergencies.

As mentioned by Fairtrade International : "The Living Income Reference Price should enable full-time cocoa farmers to earn a living income if implemented as part of a holistic strategy that also includes increased productivity and diversified crops". 

* To find out more about the reasons for this setback and some ways to improve ethics in the sector, read the TDC article: "Fair trade struggles to lift cocoa farmers out of poverty in Ivory Coast"

Belgium joins countries calling on the European Commission to act on deforestation

On December 5, Belgium presented an Initiative calling on the European Commission to “develop an ambitious action plan against deforestation and forest degradation before the end of the current mandate of the European Commission (mid 2019)”.

It is the seventh European Union (EU) Member State to do so, following a letter sent by Denmark, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Italy in November 2018. It is the first time that Belgium has made such a specific call.

This recommendation is part of a sustainability initiative on chocolate, set up by the Belgium government, chocolate companies and civil society, which aims to provide a fair income to cocoa producers and stop deforestation driven by cocoa production by 2030.

The initiative also calls on the European Commission to propose a due diligence regulation for the cocoa sector, describing it as “particularly ripe for legislation addressing the root causes of and interlinkages between human rights violations and deforestation”.

This follows calls made at the World Cocoa Conference earlier this year, where chocolate companies agreed in a common declaration that there was a need to “strengthen human rights due diligence, including through potential regulatory measures by governments.”

Full text of the initiative can be found here: French version, Dutch version

ISO / CEN "sustainable cocoa" standard postponed to 2019

Planned for the end of 2018, the ISO / CEN standard on sustainable cocoa is postponed due to a disagreement over the terms and costs of control.

Even though some chocolate companies have embraced three certification systems (UTZ Certified, Rainforest Alliance and Fairtrade) it is clear the industry does not want to invest all its money in this. 

At their request, CEN (European Committee for  Standardisation), the cupola of national standardisation organisations of 33 European countries, launched a process in 2011 to come to a ‘general standard for  sustainable cocoa’.

This is quite ambitious, especially if you consider that CEN has left its familiar terrain of quality and safety standards for a difficult concept such as sustainability. Soon ISO, the International Organisation for Standardization, with 163 member countries, was also involved in the process. Many cocoa producing countries also joined the debate and through national mirror committees, other parties (such as companies and NGOs) joined.

The ISO/CEN is to become a global standard which clearly defines what sustainable cocoa is and which everyone in the field can apply. It consists of three sub-standards:

• A Management System Standard for the structure and management of the value chain.
• A series of criteria in three domains: People (living and working conditions complying with the standards of the International Labour Organisation), Planet (the impact on the environment) and Profit (the revenue of farmers and their productivity).
• Procedures to guarantee the origin of cocoa, probably via various systems: from fully traceable to formulas that allow for the combination with non-certified cocoa.

The targeted system is Low Threshold/High Bar, which implies different levels of application (basic, medium, high). Recognition at one level implies an action plan for the next step.

Unlike existing certification systems there is no CEN or ISO label on the final consumer product. It is up to the companies to check their claim of sustainable production.

The launch is now planned for 2019.

Mars will invest $1 billion in sustainable cocoa supply chain and wants to move beyond certification

In September 2018, Mars Wrigley Confectionery launched a new plan to improve the sustainability of its cocoa supply chain. Cocoa for Generations is backed by an investment of $1 billion over 10 years. 

Mars aims to have 100 percent of its cocoa from the Responsible Cocoa program responsibly sourced globally and traceable by 2025. "Responsible Cocoa means having systems in place to address deforestation, child labor and higher incomes for farmers." This announcement seems a step backwards because the company has previously commited to buying 100% certified cocoa by 2020. 

As part of the new scheme, Mars is committed to collaborate with Fairtrade and Rainforest alliance to improve audit controls, child labor monitoring, traceability and premiums paid to farmers. The company will also employ GPS technology to mitigate deforestation.  This has been confirmed by Michael Gidney CEO of The Fairtrade Foundation: “Fairtrade certification remains part of the programme and we will work together with Mars to bring a better, more sustainable future to the farmers.”

But John Ament, Global Vice President of Cocoa, told Reuters that the company is now looking to move “beyond certification”, which has not delivered the impact the company had hoped for. “Certification isn’t enough,” he said. “Our belief is that we need to set more demanding standards than certification sets today.” "Currently, 50 percent of the cocoa that Mars buys is certified by schemes such as Rainforest Alliance and Fairtrade. Mars said it will maintain these volumes and potentially increase them if it sees improvements in the schemes’ standards. Certification - designed to ensure more ethical practices and better earnings - has also been widely criticized as doing little to improve the lives of farmers, as the premiums they receive under the biggest of these schemes have been falling."*

* Ana Ionova, Mars aims to tackle "broken" cocoa model with new sustainability scheme, Reuters, September 19, 2018

Fair trade struggles to lift cocoa farmers out of poverty in Ivory Coast

Real concern

In recent years, there have been numerous studies attesting that cocoa producers in Côte d'Ivoire, the main producing country, live in poverty. They earn EUR 0.86, around 1 dollar a day, according to Barry-Callebaut and the French Development Agency[1]. This income keeps them below the poverty line[2] and to make ends meet they have to resort to child labour and rampant deforestation (the productivity of cleared land required less labour in the early years).

Disturbing fact: whether producers are certified fair or sustainable does not change much as regards the income they receive. Fairtrade International and True price say[3] that only 42% of Fairtrade certified producers earn above the extreme poverty line[4] and only 23% above the poverty line.

According to the same survey, raising 80% of farmers above the poverty line requires a cocoa price of $ 4.72/kg.[5] In other words, Fairtrade International must raise its guaranteed minimum price which is currently only $2 a kilo of cocoa, to which a development premium of $ 0.2 kg is added.[6] The authors of the 2018 Cocoa Barometer are also convinced that the "Fairtrade minimum price is probably far too low to ensure that farmers escape poverty"^[7], which raises questions about how this minimum price, in effect for several years, was calculated. Especially as consumers have been led to believe that a fair price can cover the production cost and ensure decent living conditions.

To be fair, it should be noted that the competition between certification systems is fierce in the cocoa market and is not to Fairtrade’s advantage. Large companies prefer UTZ or Rainforest Alliance certifications, which do not set guaranteed minimum prices for producers. In 2017, just under 1.5 million tonnes[8], or 1/3 of the cocoa produced in the world, was UTZ certified. Added problem: 66% of Fairtrade certified cocoa is not sold under fair trade conditions due to a lack of market opportunities. In Belgium, only 1% of the chocolate sold is fair trade.

But this failure (77% of Fairtrade certified producers are below the poverty line) also has other explanations. According to BASIC, which compared the fair trade cocoa sectors in Peru and Côte d'Ivoire, "fair trade cocoa seems to have little significant impact when it is integrated in standardised mass production value chains (this is even more flagrant in the case of sustainable certification.)” ^[9] which is the case in Côte d'Ivoire.

Cocoa producers in Côte d'Ivoire ©  TDC

How to strengthen equity

To be truly beneficial to producers, to be a real force for change, fair chains must tackle various projects, concurrently:

• Prioritise the structure of supply chains that are alternatives to those of large groups by enhancing quality through a differentiated price of farm gate prices depending on the varieties (criollo, mercedes, forastero) and grades (1 or 2) [10] of cocoa. In Côte d’Ivoire it is quite possible to get out of the "commodification" that keeps prices low, and to develop specialty cocoas of origin. An example is the SCEB cooperative which produces high quality organic cocoa, sold to Ethiquable[11] to make a certified "small producers' label" chocolate.[12]The Südwind research institute noted that the quality of Côte d'Ivoire's cocoa has increased in recent years, which seems to have pushed some German manufacturers to buy more cocoa in Nigeria, where quality is not as good and prices can be maintained at current low levels.
• Support the structuring of cooperative unions to make producers' voices heard and try to rebalance the balance of power with buyers.

• Strengthen co-operatives, particularly in governance, member services, marketing and financial management so that they can acquire sufficient working capital, which in turn will help keep their members.
• Promote a minimum income for the various stakeholders in the sector, chief among which are cocoa farmers. Fairtrade International and True Price have just estimated this income at $ 2.51[13] per person a day in Côte d'Ivoire. To get closer to this minimum income, Belvas, a Belgian chocolate maker known for its organic chocolate and Fairtrade, launched a new range of Côte d'Ivoire chocolate in October 2018.[14] $ 2.4 (including $ 1.2 in premium) per kilo goes to the producers' cooperative. Unaffordable for the consumer? The premium only represents 10 cents a tablet of 180g.
• Increase low yields (435 kg/ha) ^[15] and promote crop diversification
• Fight against deforestation (Côte d'Ivoire has lost 13 million hectares, or 80% of its forest cover since 1960) to preserve biodiversity, limit its effects on rainfall, yields and therefore, in the long term, its downward impact on revenues. Fair trade chocolate should only be produced with cocoa grown according to the principles of agroforestry.
• It has to be said: increase the size of farms which are sometimes too small to be profitable. In Côte d’Ivoire they should at least be 2 to 3 hectares, with yields of 750 kg/sec/ ha.[16]
• To increase the value added in the country of origin, fair trade could also encourage the local processing of cocoa. In this respect, even if the scale remains very limited, the initiatives of local entrepreneurs who have just launched their chocolate brands in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, but also in other African countries, are to be welcomed[17].

Drying of cocoa ©  TDC

National platforms that bring together public authorities, cocoa and chocolate manufacturers, retailers, NGOs and research institutes are also good operational tools to contribute to a more sustainable cocoa / chocolate sector, to better traceability and better income for producers. There are some in Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

However, complex dynamics and the importance of the issues mean that to make the value chains genuinely more sustainable, voluntary initiatives such as fair trade are not enough. In the countries of origin, they must be backed by legislation designed to guarantee remunerative prices for producers, to enforce the conventions of the International Labour Organisation and to stop deforestation. In consumer countries, as has been done in France, legislation which holds companies liable for the impact of their activities all along the production and supply chain is necessary.[18]


Samuel Poos

This note is the sole responsibility of the author. It does not necessarily represent the opinion of Enabel (the Belgian Development Agency) or that of the Belgian Development Cooperation.

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[1] Gaëlle Balineau (AFD) Safia Bernath (Barry Callebaut), Vaihei Pahuatini, Cocoa farmers’ agricultural practices and livelihoods in Côte d’Ivoire, Insights from cocoa farmers and community baseline surveys conducted by Barry Callebaut between 2013 and 2015, Technical notes, AfD.

[2] 1.27 USD (World Bank)

[3] Fairtrade International and Ture Price, Cocoa Farmer Income. The household income of cocoa farmers in Côte d’Ivoire and strategies for improvement, April 2018. The study is based on two surveys conducted in 2016, covering 3,235 farmers and 23 co-operatives.

[4] 0.78 USD (World Bank)

[5] Fairtrade International and Ture Price, Op., Cit.

[6] Fairtrade International is expected to announce a revaluation of the minimum price paid to producers by the end of 2018.

[7] Antonie Fountain, Friedel Huetz-Adams, Cocoa Barometer 2018, Voice.

[8] https://utz.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/UTZ_Cocoa-Statistics-Report-2017.pdf

[9] BASIC (Bureau for the Appraisal of Societal Impacts and Costs), The dark side of chocolate, An analysis of the conventional, sustainable and fair trade cocoa chains, for the French Fair trade Platform,

[10] Cocoa is classified into three commercial types: Grade 1, Grade 2 and Sub grade. Cocoa grades 1 and 2 are exported under the trade name "Good fermented: GF". The grading is based on the percentage of defective beans (*Conseil Café-Cacao de Côte d’Ivoire).

[11] More information: SCEB – Commerce équitable en Côte d’Ivoire

[12] More info: Le label des petits producteurs

[13] Fairtrade International and True Price, Op., Cit.

[14] More info: Belvas, la chocolaterie belge qui s’attaque au travail des enfants.

[15] Gaëlle Balineau (AFD) Safia Bernath (Barry Callebaut), Vaihei Pahuatini, OP. Cit.

[16] Johan Declercq, Cocoa and sustainable chains expert. He has worked for 12 years at Max Havelaar Belgique (now Fairtrade Belgium).

[17] Hadassah Egbedi, 8 Female Entrepreneurs Promoting Bean to Bar Chocolate Production in Africa, Ventures Africa, August 20, 2018. Un artisan chocolatier ivoirien lance le premier chocolat de pâtisserie fabriqué en Côte d’Ivoire, Jeune Afrique, August 30, 2017

[18] Loi n° 2017-399 du 27 mars 2017 relative au devoir de vigilance des sociétés mères et des entreprises donneuses d'ordre