Sustainability in Cocoa Farming


Cocoa farming is unsustainable in very crude ways: farmers are so poor they have no alternative to the little cash that cocoa earns them, often involving their children in the work more hours and in physically harsher work than children should do. Rainforests are cut down to make place for negligently managed, cash-starved micro-farms that are cheap fodder for their governments and industry. “Picture this,” says Philipp, “in craft chocolates such as ours, on- farm fermentation and drying of beans is perhaps the most important step to make a very healthy and tasty chocolate product. In commodity cocoa, fermentation and drying is almost non-existent, because it costs money and skills.” He adds: “Most of the burden of chocolate is paid by West


Africa, the countries of Ivory Coast and Ghana. That’s also the trade in which most of the money is being made. A recent report by one of the world’s ‘Big Candy’ giants, Mondelez, put the amount of money we in the West would need to pay back to the cocoa farmers in these two countries each year to be “fair” enough to allow 3/4ths of them a minimum living income at $10 billion per year. That’s the help they deserve. It would need to come from consumers paying more and cocoa businesses profiting less.” Not only this, but over the next few decades, climate change is expected to threaten many regions across the world, including those where cocoa is grown. Forests play a critical role in mitigating climate change, while at the same time providing important benefits to soils, water, biodiversity and providing livelihoods for millions of farmers, as well as a secure food supply for a growing global population. However, increasing pressure from a wide range of sources, including logging and other crop production, threaten the ecological integrity of forests. Kate Clancy, Group Sustainability Lead at Cargill Cocoa & Chocolate, tells us: “Cocoa farmers are often exposed to a variety of external variables that make it hard to secure stable livelihoods and may push them to expand further into forest areas, converting new lands in order to meet the increased demand for cocoa and meet their livelihood needs, trapping them in a vicious cycle that


30 Kennedy’s Confection June 2022


creates long-term problems for forests and farmers alike. “Mitigating the impacts of climate change and ending deforestation are crucial to our ability to produce enough food for everyone. The interrelated socioeconomic factors include market prices of cocoa, policies on land use and enforcement of forest protection laws. This challenge must be addressed holistically to ensure a sustainable, secure supply of cocoa for generations to come.”


From their perspective


We reach out to David Finlay, Senior Supply Chain Manager for cocoa at the Fairtrade Foundation, who gives us further insight into the farmers’ lives. He tells us that Mile Désirée is a widow from Ivory Coast, who lives in a modest homestead with her five children. She belongs to CAVA cooperative and farms on a small plot of land, growing chilis and mangos to supplement her income from cocoa farming, alongside cassava for home consumption. For Mile, her life is centred around ensuring the necessities of day-to-day life are covered for her and her children, with little remaining money to invest back into her home or towards savings for healthcare and other needs.


Digbeu Alphonse is a cocoa farmer from the same cooperative, who manages a much larger plot of land and grows five tonnes of cocoa per year, compared to Mile’s less than two tonnes. Although his revenue is higher, Digbeu struggles with the rising costs of seasonal labour and access to long-term credit lines needed to replenish his ageing tree stocks.


“The stories of Mile and Digbeu are the stories of millions of small-holder cocoa farmers in West Africa today. They point to the common challenges which farmers are facing – decreasing yields as a result of climatic changes and poor input use, rising costs of labour and the need to diversify beyond cocoa farming to help ends meet,” David explains. “At the same time, they also point to the reality that ‘no two farmers are the same’; each farmer has a different


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