May 2012 C&CI • Trader Profile • 45
Skills lost during the civil war – such as maintaining plantations in good order – are beginning to be resurrected
ly. "Mould and infestation are both coming down rapidly," he told C&CI. "In some areas fermentation is still being done too fast, but we are working with the farmers on that and the results have been impressive." Another issue that TFL has had to tack-
le is labour. During the civil war a lot of people left the land. Now, particularly among younger people, there is a reluc- tance to work the land, and a lot of expertise has been lost. "If you are a young man in Sierra Leone what you most want is to live in the city and have a motor bike and a mobile phone," Mr Simpson explained. "It has taken a lot of effort on our part, but gradually we have been helping to reinstate the expertise lost dur- ing the war." TFL has also been quite innovative in
its approach, employing mobile teams to cut the under storey in plantations. "In a country like Sierra Leone, where you have very heavy rainfall, the under storey can easily grow to be 6ft high in a single sea- son," he explained. "As the skills and expertise are resurrected farmers are beginning to take notice of cocoa again, production is going up and the quality is increasing too."
Aiming for certification
In the longer term Mr Simpson also sees certification as the best way to secure the long term future of the company and the farmers from whom it buys cocoa. "We have looked at UTZ and at Rainforest Alliance," Mr Simpson said. "Organic certification is another option open to us, because there is not fertilizer use at all at present."
TFL has also recently obtained a 50-
year lease, with an option to renew at the end of the term, over five acres of land in Kenema, Sierra Leone, on which it plans to build a 2,000m2 processing and man- agement facility. The five acre site is adjacent to a new
dual carriageway, which is the main artery to the cocoa growing regions, and is anticipated to be extended and connect to the Guinean border. The new facility will dry and process cocoa beans ready for TFL to export. It will also house adminis- trative and buying offices as well as vehi- cle maintenance facilities. The facility will be constructed and equipment and processes installed will be of international
standard as part of TFL’s expansion of its collateral management programme from Freetown to upcountry Sierra Leone. Recent weeks have also seen TFL
approved to become the first Sierra Leonean cocoa company to become a voting member of the Federation of Cocoa Commerce (FCC), the internation- al trade organisation that represents all areas of the cocoa supply chain. The appointment is expected to increase TFL’s global profile amongst the major cocoa traders and processors, and sup- port expansion plans to become a lead- ing buyer, trader and producer of high quality, sustainable and traceable cocoa. C&CI
TFL is renovating a plantation and extending it using new planting material
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