The 2022 Cocoa Barometer Report has disclosed that, challenges within the global cocoa supply chains, including child labour and deforestation will persist unless efforts are coupled with the payment of a higher farmgate price for cocoa.
The Report indicates that, a combination of public policies, private sector purchasing practices, and agricultural solutions in relation to pricing are required.
The Cocoa Barometer Report developed by the VOICE Network of civil society organizations, revealed that, families in cocoa communities are being faced with a wide range of challenges including child labour, gender inequality, (infant) malnutrition, lack of access to education, insufficient health care facilities and sanitation, and a variety of labour rights violations for smallholders, workers and tenants.
Not limited to that, these families tend to also face Environmental issues such as deforestation and climate change which remains a growing concern, the Report stated.
According to the Report, without a significant increase in earnings or reduction in farm tools and equipment, cocoa farmers will be burdened with the responsibility for addressing these range of issues without the means or incentives to do so.
“Environmental and social harms are likely to continue in the world’s major cocoa producing countries, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. Top-down national and international government strategies aimed at increasing cocoa production to address poverty tend to support the chocolate industry while failing to address these issues.
“Additionally, the cost-of-living crisis is putting further pressure on farmers in West Africa.”
Cocoa Barometer Report
Mr. Yao Kouame Martia of the cocoa cooperative ECAM in the south-west of Côte d’Ivoire, bemoaned that, selling his Cocoa in the past five years could cater for his entire household expenses, but due to the issues being faced by the cocoa sector such as high prices of products, there has been a struggle in meeting his daily needs.
Avoid Ineffective Strategies And Pay Higher Price To Cocoa Farmers
According to the new data and models launched by the Cocoa Barometer Report, development measures aimed at increasing productivity and diversification will be ultimately ineffective without real efforts to close the living income gap through subsidizing farmgate prices.
Likewise, development programmes alone are incapable of reducing deforestation, the use of hazardous pesticides or entrenching the long-term adoption of good agricultural practices, the Report indicated.
“Raising productivity or increasing farm size will never work in isolation to address the myriad of problems in the global cocoa supply chain. Paying a higher price is inevitable if the living income gap is to be closed.
“Interventions such as the Ivorian-Ghanaian Living Income Differential are necessary first steps, but companies need to go far beyond that to ensure the farmgate price goes up.”
Antonie Fountain, director of the VOICE Network and co-author of the Cocoa Barometer
The Barometer Report concludes that, in order for living income to become a reality for cocoa farmers, action is needed on three separate fronts; good governance policies by public bodies, good purchasing practices by the private sector; and good agricultural practices by farmers.
For the past two decades, however, almost all of the cocoa sector efforts have been focused on farmers themselves, avoiding the necessary changes in government policy and purchasing practices needed to tackle sustainability issues, it stated.
The Report further stated that, recent efforts by the EU to establish ‘due diligence’ directives aimed at curbing environmental and social harms in global supply chains, including cocoa, are a welcome first step towards creating a more transparent supply chain.
“This is essential for keeping companies accountable for their purchasing practices. Ultimately, even these positive policy developments will come to nothing if companies do not take action soon.
“They need to pay a higher price.”
Cocoa Barometer Report
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