Fairtrade Certified Chocolate

70% of the world’s cocoa, the main ingredient in chocolate, is grown by small-scale farmers in two West African countries: Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana.

As many as five million farming households depend on cocoa as a cash crop, relying on it for 60-90% of their income. Many cocoa farmers live on less than $2 dollars a day.

The chocolate industry depends on farmers’ ability to reinvest in their farms, adapt to today’s challenges and plan for the future. Yet, chocolate companies – the most powerful, wealthy players in the supply chain – have underpaid them for decades. Chronic underinvestment in cocoa farmers has left many unable to meet their own needs and contend with today’s threats.

The future of cocoa farming is threatened by:

• chronic underpayment
• climate change
• increasing production costs
• competition for land, labor and resources driven by other income generating activities, such as illegal gold mining

Building resilient farming organizations is a critical, yet often overlooked, first step in addressing issues in making sustainable chocolate, like underpayment, child and forced labor, and climate change. By supporting small-scale farmers to organize themselves into farming organizations – such as cooperatives and unions – farmers have more bargaining power so they can negotiate better terms of trade and reach wider markets.

Fairtrade works with nearly 500,000 small-scale cocoa farmers across some of the largest cocoa-growing countries in West Africa and Latin America. The partnership between cocoa farmers and Fairtrade is a force for change in a highly consolidated industry that has unfairly benefitted more powerful players in the supply chain for decades, leaving many farmers living on less than $1 a day.

• Fairtrade cocoa farmers are paid a Fairtrade Minimum Price for their goods, which acts as a safeguard when market prices drop. Organic production is incentivized with a higher Minimum Price.
• On top of the Minimum Price, farming organizations also receive a  Fairtrade Premium which they invest in projects of their choice. Many farmers have used the Premium to improve their businesses and production, replacing old trees and investing in better facilities for crop collection, storage and transport, or processing.
• Fairtrade sets living income reference prices for small-scale farmers and advocates for brands to pay them. If we want cocoa in the future, cocoa farmers need to earn a decent and viable living from their work.
• Fairtrade implements programs led by local experts in partnership with farming organizations, covering various thematic areas, like gender equality, child and forced labor and access to finance.

🎥 See how it works!

Fairtrade’s West Africa Cocoa Program works to reduce poverty in cocoa growing communities by helping the farming organizations small-scale cocoa farmers belong to increase cocoa production and improve governance and financial decision-making.

We’re helping organizations meet their farmers’ needs by facilitating educational trainings on key topics like climate resilience, gender equality, child protection, governance and financial management. Nearly 50,000 farmers participated in Fairtrade trainings in 2023. Being part of a farming organization also helps farmers access new markets, providing opportunities to increase profits by trading with customers seeking large quantities of cocoa.

Certified organizations have access to governance, finance, and strategy guidance and Internal Management Systems trainings. Building organizations’ skills in these areas helps them become dependable business partners to their commercial buyers and traders.