Sustainable cocoa requires farmer leadership and supply chain collaboration

Working at Fairtrade, “Farmers should be paid a fair price” is our slogan. And it’s true! But it also simplifies complicated challenges that farmers are facing. At the 2024 Fairtrade Africa Cocoa Forum, I spoke with farmers from Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Dominican Republic who unpacked the converging factors that are making it hard to run a viable farming business without appropriate compensation. As someone who has a passion for fair trading practices in the cocoa industry (and who consumes a substantial amount of Fairtrade chocolate), these conversations struck a personal chord.

Heading to Yamoussoukro, Côte d’Ivoire just after the 2023/2024 West African cocoa harvest season that was at its 22-year low and only weeks after cocoa prices hit their all time high, I was excited to see the news and information I had heard at home, in the US, in action.

Bittersweet legislation

Throughout the forum, farmers and other stakeholders were focused on the new EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) and EU Deforestation-free products (EUDR). The consensus I heard was that while the legislation is focused on addressing two important issues relevant to the cocoa industry–child labor and deforestation– and bringing much needed transparency into supply chains, it is imposing significant costs on farmers and places a disproportionate implementation burden on them.

In fact, during a panel focused on farmers and how they are preparing for the new legislation, Dinorah Esther Burgos of COOPAGRO in the Dominican Republic, shared that meeting the new requirements is complex, demanding more staff time and new expertise to set up new monitoring systems. A challenge they will overcome but a challenge nonetheless.

Deforestation monitoring – in action

To address the deforestation legislation, farmers need to be able to prove that they are not cutting down forests to grow cocoa. So, they are required to provide geolocation data points to a satellite monitoring system that provides deforestation data to customers selling in and through the EU. Farmers and cooperatives must now acquire another level of expertise and technology.

To share the burden, Fairtrade has developed a 3-year partnership with Satelligence to provide satellite monitoring of forested areas and farms for all Fairtrade cocoa and coffee producer organizations at no cost. That’s over 550,000 cocoa farmers that will benefit. The producers will provide geolocation data points and Satelligence will monitor existing instances of deforestation on and around farms, and then provides producer organizations with a report so they own and can share the data.

However, on the last night of the forum, I sat down to dinner with Frederick Mustapha Tamu from Agri Leone cooperative in Sierra Leone. He explained that land mapping software (required to access the geolocation points for deforestation monitoring) can cost producer organizations tens of thousands of dollars — funds they simply do not have. Without this software, they risk being excluded from the European market. Another reason that farmers need to be paid a fairer price for their cocoa: so that they can access the software and support needed to comply with regulations imposed by other markets.

On a positive note, I could argue that Fairtrade farmers are better positioned than many to implement these requirements due to the strategic programmatic support Fairtrade provides. The work that Fairtrade has done to prepare producers for the new legislation was evident at the forum. Since 2014, Fairtrade’s flagship program — the West Africa Cocoa Program– has offered training to strengthen cooperatives by building robust systems and strategic leaders. This results in strong partners for their farmer members and business partners. Edward Akapire, Fairtrade Africa’s West Africa Network Director said that, “You can tell the difference between a Fairtrade cooperative and a non-Fairtrade cooperative,” attributing this to the ongoing training provided by the West Africa Cocoa Program. Because this critical organizing work is already underway, Fairtrade cooperatives have the capacity to implement the new systems required to meet legislation from a place of existing organizational strength.

Addressing deforestation and child labor is crucial to improving today’s trade system. Throughout my time at the forum not one producer said otherwise. In fact, many that I spoke with appreciate the value of having a policy to address these issues. However, implementing new programs and accessing new technology is proving costly. Farmers and their cooperatives are requesting more financial support to comply with the policies.

The tangible impact of climate change

The new EU legislation is coming into effect as climate change continues to cause erratic weather events and increase prevalence of pests. In Ghana this year, for example, excessive rain at the beginning of the cocoa season was followed by severe drought, leading to reduced cocoa production. As a rain-fed crop, timing is critical in cocoa and too much rain can be detrimental. Additionally, swollen shoot virus disease is also spreading among cocoa trees, and the wet conditions only accelerates its spread. The primary way to halt the spread is to cut down an infected tree – thus swollen shoot virus disease has caused a decrease of 15-50% in production in Ghana.

Since cocoa prices have been low for so many years, it’s been difficult for farmers to appropriately invest in their aging cocoa farms, whether it’s growing cocoa seedlings, planting shade trees or investing in water management systems. Without additional income and therefore investment, it has made farmers less resilient to the challenges they’re facing. Since (aside from this unique year) they haven’t seen significant price increases, farmers at the forum shared the added income from the Fairtrade Premium has been imperative to building resilience against climate change.

Doumbia Moussa of the ECAM Meagui cooperative in Ghana shared that the Fairtrade Premium provided funding for Fairtrade Africa to host a series of trainings on the impact of climate change, and strategies to mitigate them such as replacing aging cocoa trees with new ones, planting other shade trees to increase farm biodiversity as well as gap filling. Because of Fairtrade, they’ve developed a dynamic agroforestry system on their cocoa farms! The premium has also been used to invest in water collection and irrigation systems for drought, and in cover crops and shade trees to enhance soil health and retain water during heavy rainfall.

Building resilience through income diversification

In addition to the on-farm techniques to build resilience, Fairtrade promotes income diversification. This way, when production is low, farmers can engage in other income generating activities and maintain an income year-round. At the forum, I learned that this is a focus of training within the West Africa Cocoa Program, and even had a chance to see it in action.

On the first day of the forum, we traveled to Bonon, which is west of Yamoussoukro to visit KAPATCHIVA, a cooperative member of the ECOOKIM union, where a group of women known as MamaChiva developed an attiéké  (pronounced ah-che-ke) processing facility. Attiéké is a local dish made from ground cassava, almost like a couscous consistency, and can be used like rice would alongside your stews, soups, meats, veggies and more. I ate attiéké at every meal in Côte d’Ivoire. I loved attiéké and will be utterly delighted if I can find it here in the US.

As the MamaChiva members proudly walked us through their facility and explained the cassava processing operation – peeling, grinding, pressing, steaming and dehydrating cassava until attiéké was formed. They had what looked like state-of-the-art processing equipment, which rapidly decreases the time it takes to create attiéké from 5 days by hand to 2 days. It is then sold throughout Côte d’Ivoire and even shipped to Canada. Everyone is hoping for a better October crop but we can feel confident knowing the women of MamaChiva are selling attiéké as an alternate source of income.

Though the United States is the top consumer of the world’s chocolate, the challenges cocoa farmers have been facing are only now starting to impact chocolate availability in the US and our ability to continue to enjoy chocolate at a low price. In my opinion, we should be doing everything we can to ensure that farmers have what they need to succeed in the market, thrive despite ongoing climate conditions, and lead prosperous lives. One significant way to do this is to purchase Fairtrade products and ingredients. This means that producers are centered at the decision-making table, just as I saw at the Cocoa Producer Forum. It means they are receiving a Fairtrade Premium to invest in their farms and diversified businesses. And a percentage of every purchase of Fairtrade product funds programs like the West Africa Cocoa Program, Fairtrade’s work to address climate change and partner with Satelligence, as well as addressing child labor.

Since my time in Yamoussoukro, I have been reflecting on a theme that continues to resonate with me, which is that cocoa farmers face a mountain of work to address these enormous challenges. Farmers are realistic about the future of cocoa and the challenges they’re facing; it’s becoming hard to farm and expensive given these hurdles. But the farmers I met were resilient, realistic and hopeful.  With their leadership, I too am hopeful.