Despite the high value of the global chocolate market and the high profitability of the few multinational companies dominating it, the farmers growing cocoa beans remain poor. To change this, the two biggest cocoa producers, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, have jointly introduced the cocoa Living Income Differential (LID) policy. Charging higher prices for beans, the policy might help mitigate both poverty and the serious child labour and deforestation issues associated with cocoa farming, for which poverty is regarded as a root cause. Nevertheless, the design of the policy and the current lack of complementary measures raise doubts about the success and longevity of the policy and concerns about the implications for farmers in other countries.
Can Certified Cocoa Win on All Fronts? A comparative analysis of the trade-offs between reducing deforestation, defeating child labour and increasing producers’ income in four countries
Overall, in the four sampled countries, small producers of cocoa remain rather poor and cocoa cannot be their only sufficient source of revenues. However, their situation is not helpless since certified producers reach additional revenues that can help them escape poverty. The four countries have not either adopted public policy to guarantee a satisfactory level of price to the producers. The struggle against child labour is tackled in all certification programmes. The same goes for deforestation although none of the standards provides sufficient details on deforestation and forest degradation levels.
Cocoa Farmer Income - The household income of cocoa farmers in Côte d’Ivoire and strategies for improvement
One of Fairtrade’s most prominent products is cocoa. Fairtrade is pushing the sector to address the many challenges that endanger the long-term sustainability of cocoa and the people behind it. Fairtrade certifies 272 producer organisations in Côte d’Ivoire, with 293,237 farmer members including 28,031 female producers. A central element of Fairtrade International’s strategic vision 2021-2025 is the ambition to see small-scale farmers earning a living income. This study touches upon different initiatives and investigates the progress that Fairtrade farmers have booked over the last years. The first goal of this study is to assess the situation of these cocoa farmers in 2020, in terms of individual farmer household incomes and the income distribution of cocoa farmers in 2020 as compared to 2018. The second goal is to evaluate the effectiveness of the Fairtrade Minimum Price (FMP) mechanism, a safety net for producers, which came into effect in the 2019/2020 harvest period.
Comparative study on the distribution of value in European chocolate chains
This study by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the Bureau d’analyse sociétale pour une information citoyenne (BASIC) - Cooperative social company, France explores the distribution of value and costs along cocoa and chocolate supply chains. With a focus on the French market of dark and milk chocolate, confectionery bars and breakfast cocoa powder, it analyses cocoa grown in four producer countries: Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Ecuador and Cameroon. Principally the report aims to estimate the distribution of value, costs and profits for different chocolate products from cocoa farmers to consumers and explore the influencing factors. It also compares the value accrued by farmers for the different products. Its main finding is that the largest share of value and margins accrues to brands and retailers. On average 70% of the total value and 90% of the total margins generated from cocoa farmers to end consumers accrue to the two last actors in the chain: brands and retailers. Upstream, only 18.6% of the total value and less than 7.5% of the total margin are generated by actors in cocoa producing countries (from cocoa cultivation up to bean exports).
Orchestrating a multi-stakeholder supply chain network: The case of exporters in cocoa certification in Cote d'Ivoire
Using a case study, this article analyses that although exporters play a key role in the implementation of voluntary certifications, their role as network orchestrator is dilemmatic. Indeed, they use their position as orchestrator to control sales of cooperatives' certified cocoa and their premium.
Cocoa marketing chain in developing countries: How do formal-informal linkages ensure its sustainability in Cameroon?
The aim of this paper is to analyse how the cocoa marketing chain operates by measuring and comparing the marketing margins of the formal and informal actors.
Demystifying the Cocoa Sector in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire
This extensive work conducted by the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) is based on a survey carried out in 2016-2017 to 1500 cocoa farmers in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. The research covers a large range of topics such as household demographics, food security, households income and poverty, gender issues, cropping practices and environmental impacts, etc.
| Originally Published | Last Updated | 07 Jun 2021 | 11 Dec 2023 |
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