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SUSTAINABLE COCOA FARMING
take place at the farm and domestic level in cocoa producing countries to improve resiliency and yield to meet demand without the need for further deforestation.”
Unfair wages Oxfam has recently published a report on the dire situation facing cocoa farmers and the causes of this. The report ‘Oxfam België/Belgique, 2024. The Living Income Differential for cocoa: futures markets and price setting in an unequal value chain’ shows how chocolate giants are making huge profits while failing to pay prices that support a living income for cocoa farmers in Ghana. The report highlighted that, despite public commitments, chocolate companies have not taken on the responsibility to maintain country differentials beside paying the Living Income Differential (LID). Instead, they let international markets determine the price they were willing to pay. Cocoa traders – four of which buy and sell at least 60% of cocoa – didn’t take responsibility either because they work with such slim margins.
The study clearly lays out that there is no lack of promises, but sadly there is a blatant lack of responsibility. The ‘system’ that governs cocoa price setting does not provide protection of human rights and safeguards for cocoa producers. The report author argued that “the current cocoa trading
22 Kennedy’s Confection June 2024
system works well if you are a chocolate company that doesn’t want to take responsibility for the lives and livelihoods of the people producing the raw materials. It also works well for you if you’re a trader with massive capital assets – which allows you to hedge your cocoa and speculate on the futures market. It’s also a great system when you’re a speculator with good intel. It’s not a great system when you’re a cocoa producer. We should therefore not be surprised that an increasing number of farmers in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana are selling their lands, often for goldmining and thereby continuing the vicious cycle of exploitation and natural degradation.” Anouk Franck, Policy Lead for Fair
Value Chains and Food Systems at Oxfam Novib, says: “Together with over 100 other Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), cocoa cooperatives and large cocoa certifiers Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance, Oxfam is calling on large and powerful companies to commit to structurally paying higher prices that allow farmers to earn a living income and to providing long-term supply security. We are currently working on a pricing study to analyse the cost structure of sustainable cocoa production in Ghana.” The issue of poverty is important to the
overall sustainability of cocoa, as it leads to so many other issues. Deforestation is widespread in West Africa because farmers are trying to earn more money by producing
and selling more cocoa, which requires more land to farm. Since January 2019 alone, 60,000 hectares of tropical forests have been cleared for cocoa production in cocoa-growing regions in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. Cocoa production is responsible for 37.4% of deforestation in protected areas in Côte d’Ivoire and 13.5% in Ghana.
Traceability is key Tony’s Chocolonely has had a fully traceable supply chain since 2012, which allows it to track all cocoa from bean to bar. “Traceability is the foundation of our approach – we have detailed insight into who is working where and under what conditions in our entire supply chain,” says Joke Aerts, open chain lead for Tony’s Chocolonely. Tony’s follows its own 5 Sourcing
Principles which address the issues of sustainability a systemic and long-lasting way: It pays a higher price for cocoa that enables farmers to earn a living income; It commits to long-term contracts to guarantee income security and enable investments over longer time periods; It works with partner cooperatives as direct and equal business partners; It supports the improvement of quality and productivity to increase yields, which ensures that more cocoa is sourced from existing farms and there is no need to encroach into protected areas; And it has 100% traceability – social,
KennedysConfection.com
mage courtesy Tony’s Chocolonely.
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