Entry: Bill Guyton, World Cocoa Foundation
One of the greatest challenges for cocoa farmers around the world is how to establish successful farmer organizations. In Cote d’Ivoire, the largest cocoa producer in the world, less than 15 percent of the country’s cocoa farmers belong to cooperatives (according to some recent estimates). The advantages from a well-organized farmer group or coop, is that it can enable farmers to:
* pool their resources and bargaining power in the marketplace
* provide services to its members such as input supplies (fertilizers, improved planting material, etc) and farmer training
* time sales and sell in bulk in order to capture higher prices
* share learnings on crop diversification, so that farmers are not so reliant on a single cash crop
* establish governance structures and processes that empower local communities
Photo: Camene Cooperative Members in Tiassale
In a recent trip to Cote d’Ivoire, I visited the Camene Cooperative in Tiassale. Established in 1985, Camene has some 2,000 members. As a service to its members, the cooperative provides discount prices on inputs, farm
credit, and improved access to transportation. Through farmer field schools, they also learn about child labor prevention, integrated crop management, health care, farm safety and other important topics.
World Cocoa Foundation is helping to support activities through our partnership with the Sustainable Tree Crops Program and specific farmer organizational support activities initiated by SOCODEVI. We hope over time, to see more successful cooperatives established in cocoa growing areas. Other organizations are working to strengthen farmer groups in West Africa. Below are some of their observations.
Entry: Mario Boivin/SOCODEVI
SOCODEVI extends its congratulations to Camene Cooperative for the result obtained from the intensive work that has been underway in the last 10 years to improve successfully their operations with their members and for the positive impact on the Tiassale's community. SOCODEVI (Société de cooperation pour le développement international) a Canadian nonprofit international development corporation has provided expertise to professionalize and strengthen dozens of business oriented cocoa/coffee Farmer Organizations of West and Central Africa since 1987. Website: www.socodevi.org
Entry: Edward Millard/Rainforest Alliance
Rainforest Alliance is certifying cooperatives in Côte d’Ivoire for compliance with its Sustainable Agriculture Standard. The standard requires the groups to visit the farmers regularly to monitor their practices, help them plan improvements, record their production and track the purchase and sales of their cocoa. This process strengthens the management structure of the cooperatives and ensures a close relationship with the members. Selling the cocoa as certified provides a market mechanism to promote and sustain farmer organization.
Entry: Kimberly Easson/Transfair USA
Through well developed community organizations, farmers are better able to share critical information about health, education and product quality. Especially in West Africa, cooperatives are best able to disseminate the message about the harmful use of child labor, and encourage more sustainable and responsible farming practices. When farmers are organized they have greater voice in the sales channel, access to market information which enables them to negotiate better prices and terms of sale – resulting in higher incomes and a better standard of living.
In Ivory Coast and Ghana, four cooperatives representing over 50,000 farmers are currently working through the Fair Trade Certified system to sell their quality cocoa products to demanding international buyers. Theo Chocolate is now offering a single-origin chocolate bar made from the first Fair Trade Certified™ cocoa beans brought into the United States from the Ivory Coast. Through their sales to the Fair Trade market, these farming communities have been able to implement a variety of programs to improve their cocoa quality, and the quality of their community services.
Through our Global Producer Services
Demand for Fair Trade Certified cocoa in the U.S. is growing and TransFair is currently looking to increase the number of farmers who participate in the Fair Trade system, as well as increase our presence on the ground to support farmer capacity building. Cocoa cooperatives in West Africa require urgent investments in infrastructure, as well as training in quality improvement and business development. These investments will reduce barriers to these farmers’ success in the US Fair Trade market and help them seize enormous market opportunities.
Entry: Daan de Vries, Utz Certified
Working on a mainstream certification program in Cote d’Ivoire, it is clear that there is a lack of mature and stable farmer organisations, with a few notable exceptions. UTZ CERTIFIED will work with its partners in the coming years to strengthen and extend this base. In the meanwhile, we hope that there will be an international exchange of institutional best practices, such as dedicated education for cooperative management, especially towards countries with a more recent history of farmer organisations. This will benefit both individual farmers and the long-term supply of everyone’s beloved chocolate.