encouraging sustainable, responsible cocoa growing

Blog entry: Bill Guyton and Tracey Duffey

Last week, the World Cocoa Foundation and the Ghana Cocoa Board led an industry delegation of 30 companies and trade associations on a tour of farmer support and educational programs in Ghana. The delegation was able to follow the cocoa supply chain, from the farms to the sea ports, including tours of warehouses, processing facilities, and quality control centers. Tracey and I have asked those traveling on the trip to share some of their observations and experiences which we will post.

The World Cocoa Foundation staff sincerely thank the Ghana Cocoa Board, Ministry of Manpower, IFESH, STCP, ICI and their partners, as well as company members who helped organize and participate in this trip.

Photo: Industry delegates and cocoa farmers participating in the Sustainable Tree Crops Program, farmer field school.

Blog Entry: Arto Almer, Purchasing Director, Cloetta Fazer Sweden AB, and Päivi Ranta-Ropo, Group Quality Manager, Purchasing, Cloetta Fazer Confectionery Ltd.

After an intensive week in Ghana it is time to summarize our highlights of the trip:

-since we never had been in any African country before we were surprised at the warmness and openness of Ghanaian people we met during our trip. The love of Ghana increased every day and most probably some day we will return back

-it was very exiting to see the cocoa farm and the farmer field school they have set up in middle of cocoa trees. We are convinced that the efforts done so far will bear fruit for the farmers. Just by showing up the WCF delegation with representatives from almost all over the world will encourage them to continue their important work.

-The big contrasts in the Ghanaian society were clearly seen every day. One day we started in Kumasi with meeting of Ashanti king and we ended up in the evening darkness to visit a hard working woman. With the earnings of soap making she has been able to send her children to school.

-One important issue on the trip was the possibility to exchange ideas and impressions with other participants around the whole chocolate world.

Photo: Arto Almer and Päivi Ranta-Ropo

Entry: Francisco Javier Gómez, Casa Luker Colombia

Tuve la gran oportunidad de asistir en representación de CasaLuker a la reunión anual celebrada en Ámsterdam y al tour a Ghana. Voy a recordar estas dos semanas como unas de las mejores experiencias que haya tenido no solo desde el punto de vista laboral sino también desde el punto de vista personal. Compartir tanto tiempo con personas de otras culturas, de otros países, seguramente con diferentes creencias, de compañías grandes y no tan grandes, con personas de diferentes profesiones y oficios en sus empresas hizo que este fuera un viaje memorable.

Primero la experiencia en Amsterdam, primera vez para mi en una reunión de la WCF. Aprendí como es su rodaje, su estructura. Conocí la gente que es importante en el mundo del cacao. Entendí la real importancia de la sostenibilidad y el enfoque que quiere darle la fundación al futuro digno del agricultor del cacao. Tuvimos un repaso de las actividades realizadas en el mundo a través de los programas de la fundación y sentimos la verdadera importancia que el cacao colombiano puede llegar a tener en un futuro cercano para el mundo cacaotero. Todas las reuniones fueron ágiles, dinámicas. El horario se cumplió a toda cabalidad y tuvimos la oportunidad de iniciar relaciones con nuevas personas con las que seguramente seguiremos compartiendo estas experiencias.

Segundo el viaje a Ghana. De nuevo para mí era la primera vez en Africa. La oportunidad de conocer toda la cadena de cacao en un país diferente al nuestro y poder comparar dos sistemas, dos necesidades, dos realidades y dos futuros diferentes es sumamente enriquecedora. Desde la escuela de campo en pleno trabajo hasta el embarque de cacao a granel en un buque pasando por el procesamiento en la fábrica de Barry Callebaut. Realmente el aprendizaje fue mucho. Tener además la oportunidad de tener contacto con la gente, con las instituciones locales y de compartir muchos ratos sociales con todos los participantes en un ambiente multicultural hace que este viaje contribuya como el que más a mi formación personal.

Mis felicitaciones más sinceras a Bill, a Tracey, a Robert y a Virginia. Fueron unos grandes anfitriones y organizadores del evento. Nunca nos faltó nada. Todo fue a tiempo. Ojalá este programa se vuelva repetitivo y nos lleve a conocer todo el cacao y su manejo a nivel mundial.


Foto: Clement Mensah y Francisco Javier Gómez en el centro de recursos para profesores en Bechem.
Photo: Clement Mensah and Francisco Javier Gomez in the teacher resource center in Bechem.

I had the great opportunity to represent CasaLuker at the Partnership Meeting and Ghana Tour. These two weeks were one of the best experiences I have had not only from a business perspective, but also from a personal point of view. Spending time with people from other cultures and countries, different positions at their companies, and from both large companies and not so large companies, made this trip memorable.

First, the experience in Amsterdam, my first time at a WCF meeting… I learned about its structure and how it works. I met important people in the cacao world. I now have a better understanding of the real importance of sustainability and the Foundation’s focus on the cocoa farmer. We heard summaries of the activities of the Foundation’s programs throughout the world and this helped me realize Colombia’s potential future role in the global market. All of the sessions were dynamic. We had the opportunity to meet many new people and will surely continue to communicate with them.

Second, the trip to Ghana…This was my first time in Africa. The opportunity to learn about the cocoa supply chain in a different country, to compare systems, realities and future opportunities was very enriching. From a Farmer Field School session to the loading of bulk cocoa on a ship passing through the Barry Callebaut processing plant, I really learned a lot.

My sincere congratulations to Bill, Tracey, Robert and Virginia. They were great hosts and organizers of the event. I hope that this program will be repeated and we will be able to learn about cocoa and its handling at a worldwide level.

Entry: Charlotte Thorø Berghof, Toms Confectionery Group

The WCF trip to Ghana has left many impressions. There are the most obvious ones related to traveling in the countryside of Ghana as we, the WCF delegates, were introduced to the cocoa supply chain. Some of the images looking out of the bus window are still vivid e.g. the image of the red dirt roads as it cuts through the rain forest with its magnificence flora and the glimpse we got of all the lives unfolded along the roads and in the villages we passed through.

What has left a stronger impression was the introduction to WCF partners and their projects – and more so meeting the people being part of the projects. For example, talking to young students at the Bechem Teaching Training College as they shared their dreams of life as a teacher and their visions for what they want to give back to the children in school as their contribution to the future of Ghana. The pride, joy and determination reflected in such views command respect.

It was also a great experience to see the STCP Farmer Field Schools and listen in on a class as it took place at a test farm. This gave a first hand impression of the participatory methods through which the Farmer Field School has received so fine results benefiting the environment, the farmers and their families.

Being in Ghana it becomes very clear that in regard to quality, social or environmental issues in relation to cocoa there are no simple solutions to the challenges. The challenges are complex as these are intertwined with the challenges of poverty and the consequences hereof. It was therefore very satisfying to see that the partner projects respectively and combined were based on holistic approaches characterized by the quest to find long lasting solutions aligned to the government strategies and initiatives.

Not only has the scheduled part of the trip been valuable, also the unique opportunity for the delegates to share their perceptions and approaches to the multiple issues related to cocoa and chocolate making has been fruitful and intriguing.

Though I have been in Ghana before, going through the cocoa supply chain I am continuously amazed with the immensity of it: the amount of time the farmer has to use growing and harvesting cocoa, the extensive quality control and recurring handling of the beans all the way from society level to the harbor. It makes it hard to grasp all the hands the cocoa has to go through before it, fore example, ends up in the silo at our factory in Copenhagen – and ultimately ends up in the hands of consumers all over the world in the shape of chocolate.

Photo: Mr. Keita Morinaga of Morinaga & CO., LTD, Mr. Yoshinori Doi of Meiji Seika Kaisha, Ltd. and Ms. Charlotte Thorø Berghof of Toms Confectionery Group

Entry: Jonathan Atwood, Kraft Foods

Now that I am resettled here in Chicago after our European / West Africa trip, I have had ample time to reflect on our trip together and I sit here today still in somewhat of state of shock. The trip to Ghana is one of the highlights of my career at Kraft and that is largely due to your incredible planning and exceptional skills. I had a brilliant time throughout the tour, met and conversed with some incredible people and saw a lot of a country that is so full of hope and optimism, but obviously not without challenges.

I must admit - I have found myself choked up a number of times when I think about Ghana and its wonderful people. I am so proud of the industry efforts to help the people and that story did not come fully alive for me until I was able to make the visit.

Bill and Tracey, please accept my sincere thanks for looking out for me, for creating a trip so full of memories and for your patience. I will of course strongly recommend to others at Kraft that they join the the next trip that the WCF puts on so that they can experience what I have.

Thanks again.

Photo: Jonathan Atwood presents a commemorative clock to the Chief of Sekreyekrobo during the delegation's visit with the Farmer Field School community.

Entry: Steve Genzoli, Ghirardelli Chocolate Company

The trip to Ghana with my fellow delegates was an experience I won’t soon forget. While I thought I was prepared for the sights, sounds and climate we would experience, I was completely caught off guard by the emotions that I experienced. Having worked in the chocolate industry my entire career, I failed to appreciate the tremendous amount of work exerted by the farmer and the conditions in which he and his family live. Because of their hard work, I am able to work in an industry I fully enjoy.

I have always appreciated the importance of cocoa bean flavor, but that is where my appreciation stopped. Having spent six days traveling throughout Ghana, watching farmers plant cocoa trees, cultivating the soil with nothing more than a machete, turning a heap of fermenting cocoa beans with their hands, and watching them fully engulfed in learning during a Farmer Field School, I can’t help but feel guilty that in the past I took their efforts for granted. I will never look at a cocoa bean again without those images flashing through my mind.

In the end, I am proud that my company supports the World Cocoa Foundation. Having seen several programs with my own eyes, having spoken directly with farmers, school children and women who were making soap, I am convinced that these programs are making a difference. Though progress is never fast enough for those of us who live in more developed countries, progress is being made and we must continue and expand our support.

Photo: Steve Genzoli of Ghirardelli and Melane Rose Boyce of the National Confectioners Association

Entry: Susan Smith, National Confectioners Association

Cocoa’s Journey from Farm to Port
My twenty years of working with the chocolate, cocoa and candy industry includes trips to Costa Rica (twice), Ecuador, St. Lucia, Trinidad and the Ivory Coast. But there’s never been a trip that conveyed in quite this way the impact of the most basic raw ingredient in chocolate on the rural communities where it is grown.

Schools without Walls
While each part of the trip was a learning experience, a highlight was the opportunity to observe a farmer field school near Sekyerekrobo, Ghana. Farmer field schools are the cornerstone of the programs we all support through the World Cocoa Foundation. The “school without walls” taught among the cocoa trees, clearly has had a positive economic and social impact on the community. Cocoa farmer Mary hosted our group. She and many of the other farmer participants, with the assistance of a facilitator, have established a comfortable learning environment together. Mary has raised 5 children and is a strong advocate for the farmer field school concept, explaining that her family’s yields from cocoa increased by 25-30% through the techniques she learned including pruning her trees as well as weeding the ground between the trees.

Photo: Louise Hilsen of Nestle and Mary after the farmer field school session.

After visiting Mary’s farm we made our way to the village of Sekyerekrobo where we received an incredibly warm welcome from Tony Dogbe of PDA Associates, the International Cocoa Initiative’s partner in Ghana, as well as village elders and community members. WCF, STCP and ICI are working together in Sekyerekrobo with the community on issues involving the appropriate role for children and the need for education.

Opportunities for Education in Cocoa Communities
As with rural communities in the United States, families want to be able to offer their children opportunities to stay in local villages and continue farming. The Cocoa Tour also visited Bechem Teacher Resource Center of St. Joseph’s College which is supported by the International Foundation for Education and Self Help and funded by WCF member The Hershey Company. St Joseph’s works to educate future teachers who then return to local communities. Following the Bechem Teacher Center there was an after dark visit to a cooperative of women located nearby who produce soap by hand from cocoa husks. Travel can be difficult in Ghana and the women, like the student teachers at Bechem, had been waiting for us for several hours by the time we arrived. The research unit of the Ghana Cocoa Board is active in finding uses for all parts of the cocoa pod. While the cooperative was small, the soap these rural impoverished women make is popular in Ghana. This is one example of the many ways rural Ghanaian communities sustain themselves through cocoa.

Photo: Tour participants tour the teacher resource center.

Healthy Cocoa Communities
In Accra, Bill and Tracey arranged a meeting for Melane Rose Boyce and me with representatives from the Family Health Institute, a program NCA is supporting through the World Cocoa Foundation to educate cocoa farming communities in Ghana on malaria and HIV/AIDS prevention. Malaria is endemic throughout Ghana and is a leading cause of death, especially among children under five, and pregnant women. The four cocoa producing regions of Ghana suffer from the highest HIV/AIDS rates in the country.

The project is beginning in 4 communities in Ghana, two each in the Ashanti and Western regions. The communities are associated with a network of farmer field schools, where villagers like Mary have experienced the positive benefits the schools can bring. Currently, FHI is developing the curriculum which will be shared with community members who are interested in seeking additional training on awareness and HIV/AIDS prevention.

Notes from the Field
Melane will remain in Ghana through early August. She observed an ICI training session in western Ghana last week. Bill is going back in September. The travel back and forth can be exhausting as can the experience itself. But cocoa’s ties to Ghana are strong and the resilience of its people impressive. Further, the programs we all support are successfully linking to make a difference. It’s hard to ask for more

Entry: Yoshinori Doi, Meiji Seika Kaisha, Ltd.

It was my great pleasure to have an opportunity to visit Ghana as a representative of Meiji Seika in an especially memorial year, a golden jubilee of Ghana’s independence and 60th anniversary of the Cocoa Board's establishment. I’d visited Ghana several times before, but I’m sure it was the most impressive tour.

I could learn a lot about the whole cocoa supply chain through visiting a farm, some societies, the Licensed Buying Companies, the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana, the Quality Control Division of Ghana Cocoa Board, warehouses and a ship at Tema port, and Barry Callebaut factory. It was especially exciting to join in a farmer field school session where they checked and argued seriously about cocoa trees. I was totally convinced that it would bring not only the improvement of the yield but also sustainability of cocoa economy in the future. And I’m so proud that our company Meiji is a member of the World Cocoa Foundation that supports these activities.

My sincere thanks to Bill, Tracey and all members of Ghana Cocoa Board for the well organized tour. Fortunately I got a chance to plant a young cocoa tree near the historic Tetteh Quarshie’s cocoa farm. Now I’m looking forward to visiting Ghana again to see my pods in the near future.

Photo: Yoshinori Doi plants a cocoa tree near Tetteh Quarshie's farm.

Entry: Jim Lampman, Lake Champlain Chocolates

I went to Ghana knowing that my many questions about the cocoa supply chain would be answered and were they ever! First of all, I discovered it is a land very rich in natural resources with plenty of hot sun, rain and humidity, and fertile soil. About half of the country is ideally suited for growing cocoa and as they say over there, “Ghana is cocoa and cocoa is Ghana”.

Farming cocoa is a way of life for so many families in Ghana (estimated to be over one-half million) so there will always be child labor in the family sense. But know that the government is dedicated to getting rid of all the worst forms of child labor. The Cocoa Board sets the price of cocoa, quality control is in check at many points along the way, and there is little reason if any, to believe that there is corruption in the supply chain. Being part of WCF is more gratifying than ever knowing that support for teaching the farmers better methods for growing premium beans and achieving better yields (thru Farm Field Schools) is in place as demand for premium beans continues to grow at record pace. To me, this is fair trade.

I feel connected to the farmers and their communities of Ghana and that connection has already transferred to the culture here at Lake Champlain Chocolates.

Photo: Ellen and Jim Lampman

Entry: Paul Ntim

My name is Paul Ntim. I am glad to join World Cocoa Foundation for the 2007 summer internship period. I am a graduate (Economic Policy Management) intern from Columbia University’s School International and Public Affairs, New York and also staff of Ghana Cocoa Board since 2003. I obtained my BA in Economics and Geography & Resource Development from University of Ghana, Legon.

I also have obtained Certificates in professional short courses such as Trade, Growth, and Poverty; Macroeconomic Management: Concept, Evidence and Case Studies; Standards Trade: Challenges and Opportunities for Developing Country Exports; Macroeconomic Management for Financial Stability and Poverty Reduction; Corporate Social Responsibility; Advanced Poverty Analysis: Poverty Dynamics, all with the World Bank Institute Washington, D.C. and Data Management and Analysis from Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic (ISSER), University of Ghana.

My areas of interest include economic policy and poverty analysis, cost-benefit analysis, trade and sustainable development and the use of econometric and statistical tools for analysis.

I intend to conduct a study on business and sustainable development: The role of WCF in the global cocoa economy during my internship period. I hope to provide some significant insight into the dynamics of sustainable development in the global cocoa economy.

I hope my internship with WCF will not only expose me to learning new things but also empower me to bring my experiences to bare on programs and activities at both national and international levels aimed at developing the global cocoa economy and welfare improvements of farming families.

I love reading comments from readers since they are good sources of knowledge acquisition. Readers’ comments are very much appreciated and therefore encouraged to do so.

Entry: Bill Guyton

Greetings from Indonesia! I am here attending the 4th Indonesia International Cocoa Conference which will be followed by field visits to cocoa farms on Saturday.

The theme of the conference is "World Cocoa Sustainability Partnership" which closely ties to the mission and goals of the World Cocoa Foundation. I was surprised by the size and diversity of the audience (over 300) from both the private and public sectors.

Cocoa is a very important export crop for Indonesia, which is currently the third largest producer in the world. As in other cocoa growing countries, the crop is cultivated by small scale family farmers and it is primarily grown on the island of Sulawesi.

The cocoa idustry here faces many challenges and opportunities. One of the more serious problems is the cocoa pod borer pest which destroys millions of dollars worth of cocoa in the fields. The World Cocoa Foundation and partners are investing in pilot programs to curb the losses by providing better farming and harvesting practices. Greater investment is needed in the future to breed trees that are more resistant to the pest. This effort will take time and patience.

The speakers on Day One of the conference included representatives from the local government and Ministry of Agriculture, followed by Jan Vingerhoets of the International Cocoa Organization, Phil Sigley from the Federation of Cocoa Commerce, Isaac Osei from the Ghana Cocoa Board, Pam Thornton from the Cocoa Merchants Association of America, and myself. The common message among the speakers seemed to be that greater coordination of efforts are needed in order to directly improve farmer productivity. The most important partner must always be the farmer.

Today's session will focus more on local initiatives to improve farmer livelihoods and supply chain linkages. There will also be a presentation on market growth and potential in China, delivered by the Chinese delegation.

I am looking forward to the field visits on Saturday, to see some of the new technologies being tested on farms. These include new solar dryer designs and fermentation techniques that can add value to the crop at the farm level.

Photo: A farmer in Sulawesi proud of his premium cocoa beans cleaned and sorted by his cooperative.