The cocoa sector is facing several dilemmas. Some major cacao-producing countries are experiencing massive deforestation challenges, while others get an increase in farmgate prices. Other countries, like Ivory Coast, have yet to benefit from this price increase.
According to a recent article published in Bloomberg, ‘The Meltdown in Chocolate is Coming’ by Javier Blas, “Cocoa prices have surged past their previous all-time high, in place for 46 years, as global production falls well short of demand for the commodity.” The article says: “Only because millions of West African farmers saw cocoa as their only way to escape abject poverty, the world had plentiful supply and low prices.”  Â
Mr. Hamza, our partner in Sierra Leone, who participated in the Organic Africa Pavilion, in BioFach, describes the situation differently: “Cacao is not a way for farmers to become rich. It is a crop that guarantees a source of income.” Chrystelle, from Maison Ahouë agrees, “Trading the beans and processing them into chocolate is the main focus for Western countries, but it is important to note that cacao provides a livelihood for hundreds of thousands of Africans.” For Mr. Hamza, the price increase should be an opportunity to apply sustainable practices in collaboration with the government. “At the current level of prices, the opportunity is huge to make cocoa plantations -even at small scale farmers- not only profitable, but transformational”.
“It is now essential that cocoa is produced sustainably to be able to keep on producing” adds Chrystelle. Do farmers understand that the benefit could be temporal? Wonders, Mr. Hamza. This window of opportunity for sustainable development requires collaboration between the government, the private sector, and producers.
Patrick, our partner in Togo, from Maison Ahouë sees the positive effects of the price increase: “Here in Togo, this price rise is giving more hope to farmers to continue plantations.” Patrick mentions that farmers he works with have been investing the money in their livelihoods, improving their housing, paying school fees and investing in their cacao farms.
Mr Hamza worries about the international cacao prices system: “In Ivory Coast, the prices are regulated to protect farmers from fluctuations, but led the farmers to miss out this year since their crops were sold last March in the annual auction. Also, the government became reliant on the cocoa income as well. They set the price of the farmers, local price, and sell it at international prices, creating revenue for the government itself.” For him, the fact that some countries nationalize the industry means granting power to these countries at the international level, “two countries that produce more than 50% of global cacao can actually dictate international prices,” he says.
Chrystelle also worries about deforestation, referring to it as the most urgent current challenge in the cocoa supply chain. The growing demand for chocolate by leading companies, the uncared farming practices, and the over-exploitation of land and resources might have something to do with this. This may be why a recent project developed by @ Darwin Initiative is focused on re-foresting one of the world’s most over-exploited cocoa regions, the Ivory Coast.
The project, called ‘Growing Threatened Trees’ Capacity to Restore Cocoa Landscapes in Côte d’Ivoire,’ is located north of Abidjan, in and around the 6,800-hectare Botanic Forest of Divo. The idea is to bring native and endangered species back while promoting rapid canopy growth. They are working to see this happen in close collaboration with the community.
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