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  • Publication | 2023

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

Global Food and Nutrition Security

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.

With respect to child labour, there is no acute concern in any of the four countries since it is not structurally part of the production system.

Deforestation is so far not a predominant issue in these four cocoa-producing countries, but this issue will probably grow in importance with the coming European regulation on imported deforestation.

The predominant certification programmes offer a premium to cocoa growers, which is considered too low to reach a decent revenue for the producers.

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.