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<p>Ghana and Rwanda are looking to deepen their trade relations after concluding a forum between the Ghana Investment Promotion Council and Rwanda investors. On the sidelines of the forum, CNBC Africa&#8217;s Fiona Muthoni spoke to the Deputy CEO of the Ghana Export Promotion Authority, Samuel Dentu, who says the current minimal trade between both countries provides an avenue for better trade collaborations.</p>


GEPA’s Dentu on what makes Rwanda attractive to investors

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<p>The World Bank says cocoa prices have been broadly stable in the past eight months with global production for the current season projected to be nearly 5 per cent higher than the 2019-2020 season. Meanwhile, Ghana is making progress on its processing efforts as they look to build a vibrant domestic chocolate industry. Edward George, Independent Commodities Expert joins CNBC Africa for more.</p>


Ghana reinforces processing to boost cocoa returns


<p>ACCRA (Reuters) &#8211; Ghana expects cocoa output of around 900,000 tonnes in the 2020/2021 season, up 5.8% from the forecast for 2019/2020, the country’s Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) said, according to a parliamentary report published on Wednesday.</p>



<p>Ghana is the world’s second-biggest cocoa producer. Its growing season runs from October to September.</p>



<p>The report also said the COCOBOD planned to raise $1.3 billion in syndicated loans to fund cocoa purchases during 2020/21 from a consortium of banks and financial institutions, with the government as guarantor.</p>



<p>The loan will carry annual interest of one month Libor plus 1.75%, a commitment fee of 0.62% per year and an upfront flat fee of 1.25%.</p>


cocoa

Ghana expects 5.8% increase in cocoa output in 2020/2021


<p>ABIDJAN (Reuters) &#8211; Cocoa arrivals at ports in top grower Ivory Coast reached 2.004 million tonnes between Oct. 1 and July 31, down 6.4% from the same period last season, data from the cocoa regulator (CCC) showed on Monday.</p>



<p>Exporters had previously estimated that arrivals from Oct. 1 to August 2 would reach 2.043 million tonnes, compared with 2.160 million the previous year.</p>


Cocoa_farmer_David_Kebu_Jnr_holding_the_finished_product,_dried_cocoa_beans_ready_for_export._(10687070725)

Ivory Coast 2019/20 cocoa arrivals reached 2.004 mln t by July 31 -CCC data

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<p>The World Bank is projecting a 7 per cent economic growth for Cote d’Ivoire this year. Meanwhile, the world’s largest cocoa producer will hold its Presidential election this year. Ayalanesh Tafesse, Country Risk Analyst at RMB joins CNBC Africa for an outlook on Cote d’Ivoire’s economy.</p>


RMB’s economic outlook for Cote d’Ivoire ahead of polls


<p>ABIDJAN (Reuters) &#8211; Ivory Coast collected 2.25 trillion CFA franc ($3.86 billion) in taxes in 2019, up 4.7% over the previous year, and expects to collect 2.72 trillion CFA francs in 2020, tax chief Abou Sie Ouattara told reporters on Thursday.</p>



<p>Ivory Coast, the world’s top cocoa producer, accounts for around 40% of the eight-nation West African CFA franc currency zone’s economy.</p>



<p>($1 = 583.2200 CFA francs)</p>



<p>Reporting by Loucoumane Coulibaly; Editing by Aaron Ross</p>


Ivory Coast tax collection up 5% in 2019

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<p>Nigeria and Cameroon are planning to agree on a premium for their cocoa. That&#8217;s according to the Vice President of World Cocoa Producers Organisation, Sayina Riman. Fellow West African cocoa producers, Ghana and Ivory Coast had already set a floor price for the crop at $2,600 per tonne. To discuss what this move will mean for the region and Nigeria’s cocoa industry, Executive Director of FTN Cocoa Processors, Akin Laoye joins CNBC Africa.</p>


Nigeria, Cameroon to agree on cocoa premium: What will this mean for Nigeria’s cocoa industry?

By <span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/michael-e-odijie-828090">Michael E Odijie</a>, <em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-cambridge-1283">University of Cambridge</a></em></span>

<p>The chocolate <a href="https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/chocolate-market">industry</a> is worth more than $80 billion a year. But some cocoa farmers in parts of West Africa are poorer now than they were in the 1970s or 1980s. In other areas, artificial support for cocoa farming is creating a debt problem. Farmers are also still under pressure to supply markets in wealthy countries instead of securing their own future. </p>

<p>In <a href="https://www.academia.edu/36081141/Sustainability_winners_and_losers_in_business-_biased_cocoa_sustainability_programmes_in_West_Africa">research</a> published last year I explored sustainability programmes designed to support cocoa farming in West Africa. My aim was to identify winners and losers.</p>

<p>I looked at initiatives such as <a href="https://www.worldcocoafoundation.org/about-wcf/cocoaaction/">CocoaAction</a>, a $500 million <a href="https://www.academia.edu/36081141/Sustainability_winners_and_losers_in_business-_biased_cocoa_sustainability_programmes_in_West_Africa">“sustainability scheme”</a> launched in 2014, and concluded that they were done in the interests of large multinationals. They did not necessarily relieve poverty or develop the region’s economies. In fact they created new problems.  </p>

<p>To sustain their livelihoods, the cocoa farmers of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana need to diversify away from cocoa production. But multinational chocolate companies need farmers to keep producing cocoa. </p>

<h2>Diversification</h2>

<p>Farmers choose to diversify their crops for a host of reasons. These include a reduction in the resources they need to produce a crop (such as suitable land), and a reduction in the price they can get for the crop.</p>

<p>Cocoa farming requires tropical forestland. This is limited; it is not possible to keep expanding to new land to keep producing cocoa. So when the land is exhausted, farmers would benefit from diversifying to products like rubber and palm oil. They do not need to grow cocoa for its own sake.</p>

<p>A great deal of diversification occurred <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/13504509.2019.1641763?casa_token=SEeqiEebBHIAAAAA:YtWBLoutBFu_HLn6m1HeAo6L07Vd-knX1GE7PivCGXZAlTvgWZlF_idDLuqj1VbdmR-2DaVISHTCQfw">during the cocoa crisis</a> of the 1970s in Ghana. Cereal output increased from 388,000 tonnes in 1964/1965 to over 1 million tonnes in 1983/83, and decreased when cocoa was <a href="http://siteresources.worldbank.org/AFRICAEXT/Resources/258643-1271798012256/Ghana-cocoa.pdf">“revitalised”</a>. The same was the case with coconut, palm oil and groundnut.</p>

<p>But such diversification is more recently being prevented by multinationals and other stakeholders who want cocoa cultivation to continue. Multinationals that depend on cocoa as a raw material openly (and rightly) regard diversification as a risk to their business. So they keep spending on cocoa farming inputs. </p>

<h2>Why there’s a limit to cocoa</h2>

<p>In West Africa, cocoa has historically been cultivated using slash and burn farming. Forest was cut down and burned before planting, and then, when the plot became infertile, the farmer moved to fresh forestland and did the same again. </p>

<p>The new land offered fertile soil, a favourable microclimate and fewer pests and diseases. Growing the cocoa took less labour and yielded more.</p>

<p>This explains the link between cocoa farming and deforestation in Côte d&#8217;Ivoire and Ghana. A recent <a href="http://www.mightyearth.org/an-open-secret-illegal-ivorian-cocoa/">investigation</a> showed that since 2000, Ivorian cocoa has been dependent on protected areas. Almost half of Mont Peko National Park, for example, which is home to endangered species, as well as Marahoue National Park has been lost to cocoa planting since 2000.</p>

<p>In Côte d’Ivoire, the area covered by forest <a href="http://www.mightyearth.org/an-open-secret-illegal-ivorian-cocoa/">decreased</a> from 16 million hectares – roughly half of the country – in 1960 to less than 2 million hectares in 2005. </p>

<p>Forestland is finite. Slash and burn is no longer an option, because so much of the forest is gone. In West Africa, planters are now staying on the same piece of land and reworking it.</p>

<p>This has created its own set of <a href="https://www.academia.edu/36081141/Sustainability_winners_and_losers_in_business-_biased_cocoa_sustainability_programmes_in_West_Africa">problems</a>.</p>

<h2>Rising costs and threats</h2>

<p>In both Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, several <a href="https://www.academia.edu/36081141/Sustainability_winners_and_losers_in_business-_biased_cocoa_sustainability_programmes_in_West_Africa">estimates</a> of the cost of maintaining a cocoa farm show that the investment costs required for replanting have approximately doubled. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Goetz_Schroth2/publication/261713726_Chocolate_forests_and_monocultures_-_an_historical_review_of_cocoa_growing_and_its_conflicting_role_in_tropical_deforestation_and_forest_conservation/links/00b49535482f8bcb1d000000/Chocolate-forests-and-monocultures-an-historical-review-of-cocoa-growing-and-its-conflicting-role-in-tropical-deforestation-and-forest-conservation.pdf">One estimate</a> of labour investment put the replanting effort at 260 days per hectare, compared with 74 days per hectare for planting using slash and burn. </p>

<p>The extra labour needed for sedentary cultivation is leading to <a href="https://ilpi.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/20151126-Child-labour-in-the-West-African-Cocoa-Sector-ILPI.pdf">child trafficking</a> and child labour in cocoa cultivation. Child trafficking generally occurs when planters are searching for cheaper sources of labour for replanting.  </p>

<p>Planters who have successfully diversified into other crops have stopped using child labour. In the cocoa industry, however, the use of child labour is increasing. For example, the number of <a href="https://ilpi.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/20151126-Child-labour-in-the-West-African-Cocoa-Sector-ILPI.pdf">child labourers</a> in the Ivorian cocoa industry increased by almost 400,000 between 2008 and 2013. </p>

<p>There has also been a massive increase in the use of fertilisers and pesticides to aid cocoa production without slash and burn. </p>

<p>The increased input (labour, fertilisers and pesticides) for replanting land amounts to a higher production cost. It cannot be adjusted by price setting. Cocoa producers have no control over price; they are price takers. So the higher production cost reduces the profit made by cocoa farmers. </p>

<p>This explains why cocoa producers in Côte d’Ivoire are <a href="http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/542291468243910934/pdf/PAD5080PAD0IDA00Box377382B00PUBLIC0.pdf">poorer now </a> than they were decades ago.</p>

<p>In Ghana, the government, through the cocoa marketing board, <a href="http://www.fao.org/3/I8329EN/i8329en.pdf">COCOBOD</a>, has managed the transition from slash and burn to sedentary farming. The government created a mass spraying programme to control diseases and pests. It also subsidised fertiliser and created a pricing policy that has sometimes amounted to a <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/a06abe2a-c1ab-11e8-84cd-9e601db069b8">government subsidy</a> <strong>this links need users to subscribe</strong>. Due to the extra free input provided by the government, sometimes supported by NGOs and multinational corporations, farmers have not become poorer in Ghana. But the approach has led to <a href="https://goldstreetbusiness.com/general-news/cocobod-looking-to-refinance-ghc6-bn-debt/">huge debt for COCOBOD</a>. For example, COCOBOD incurred GHc2 billion (US$367 million) debt for subsidising the price of cocoa <a href="https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/business/COCOBOD-incurred-GHC2-billion-debt-in-2017-for-cocoa-price-subsidy-689641#">for the year 2017</a>.</p>

<p>Although cocoa planters are faring well in Ghana, it is not clear that Ghana’s cocoa sector is really a success story. The shift to debt financing has artificially produced <a href="http://siteresources.worldbank.org/AFRICAEXT/Resources/258643-1271798012256/Ghana-cocoa.pdf">the success</a>.</p>

<h2>The way forward</h2>

<p>Cocoa “sustainability” activities are not the way forward. Cocoa sustainability is a new form of colonisation in Africa, because its real goal is to prevent African planters from diversifying away from cocoa into other crops. These programmes keep the cocoa industry going under deteriorating conditions. </p>

<p>The way forward is to switch from cocoa to crops that do not require forestland (new or exhausted), extra fertilisers or more labour. </p>

<p><a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-017-7294-5_2">Research</a> has shown that cocoa planters in Côte d’Ivoire who have diversified into other crops, such as rubber, have succeeded in escaping poverty.   </p>

<p>But that is seen as a major threat to the supply of raw material to Western multinationals. One representative of a large chocolate multinational explained “<a href="https://www.academia.edu/36081141/Sustainability_winners_and_losers_in_business-_biased_cocoa_sustainability_programmes_in_West_Africa">my enemy is not my competitor in the purchase of cocoa, but the rubber industry</a>.”  </p>

<p>In conclusion, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire have to think about what is best for them instead of what is best for the chocolate industry and consumers in the developed world.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124761/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important" /></p>

<p><span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/michael-e-odijie-828090">Michael E Odijie</a>, Post Doctoral Researcher, <em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-cambridge-1283">University of Cambridge</a></em></span></p>

<p>This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/ghanas-cocoa-farmers-are-trapped-by-the-chocolate-industry-124761">original article</a>.</p>

Here are three reasons why Ghana’s cocoa farmers are trapped by the chocolate industry


<p>LISBON (Reuters) &#8211; Ghana, the world’s second largest cocoa producer, is expected to produce 850,000 tonnes of cocoa in 2019/20 season, at the lower end of average levels on account of the swollen shoot disease outbreak, the country’s industry regulator said on Thursday.</p>



<p>Ghana’s annual cocoa production is usually between 850,000 and 900,000 tonnes, though the country had an official forecast of 900,000 tonnes for the current 2018/19 season, which ends this month.</p>



<p>“Swollen shoot is the main factor bringing down production,” Joseph Boahen Aidoo, chief executive of the Ghana Cocoa Board (Cocobod), an industry regulator, told Reuters on the sidelines of the European Cocoa Forum in Lisbon.</p>



<p>Aidoo also said Ghana would announce the official farmgate price for the 2019/20 season on Oct. 1. The farmgate price is a fixed annual price set and paid by the government to farmers each season.</p>



<p>Ghana’s cocoa output is expected to fall to 830,000 tonnes in the 2018/19 season, which ends this month, on account of unfavourable weather and swollen shoot disease, according to the International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO).</p>



<p>Ghana’s fight against the disease has prompted Cocobod to replant of 400,000 hectares of cocoa plants. It will take at least three to five years for the replanted surfaces to come into production.</p>



<p>Reporting by Maytaal Angel; Editing by Tom Brown</p>


Ghana expected to produce 850,000 tonnes of cocoa in 2019/20 season, at the lower end of average levels…Here’s why

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<p>According to the National Bureau of Statistics, cocoa was one of the most traded agricultural products in the fourth quarter of 2018. But how can Nigeria improve the quality and quantity of its cocoa yields? Akin Laoye, Executive Director, FTN Cocoa Processors joins CNBC Africa to discuss this.</p>


Boosting Nigeria’s cocoa yields

<p>NYAME NNAE, Ghana (Thomson Reuters Foundation) &#8211; Since Emmanuel Agyekum took over a decade ago as chief of Nyame Nnae, a poor cocoa farming village in western Ghana, people’s incomes have fallen and his worries have increased.</p>
<p>The cocoa trees planted behind wood-plank houses are getting old, and produce only a fraction of what they used to.</p>
<p>Last year, money ran out between harvest seasons and people struggled to buy food.</p>
<p>“The cocoa trees are dying and it is a worry to us all,” said Agyekum, sitting in a plastic chair in a dirt yard.</p>
<p>Cocoa yields are declining across Ghana, the world’s second-biggest producer after neighboring Ivory Coast, where about 800,000 family farmers supply cocoa beans to chocolate companies such as Hershey’s and Nestle, according to the government.</p>
<p>The industry regulator, Cocobod, has encouraged farmers to clear away old trees and replant. But under the traditional agreements that govern rural land use, a farmer’s land rights are tied to the crops he is growing.</p>
<p>Cutting down the cocoa can mean losing your lease, said Paul Macek of the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF), which represents over 100 of the biggest companies.</p>
<p>“Land tenure is a risk for any smallholder farmer,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.</p>
<p>“As a result of the customary arrangements, sharecroppers are very reluctant to make investments in rehabilitating old farms. Even if the situation is desperate, they really have no incentive to do that.”</p>
<p>In Nyame Nnae, The Hershey Company , cocoa supplier ECOM and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) tested a possible solution.</p>
<p>Working with lawyers, tech companies and local chiefs, they mapped farms and documented customary land agreements that had never been put into writing before.</p>
<p>“What we found is that just the fact of documentation helped farmers increase their sense of security over that land,” said Robert O’Sullivan of U.S.-based non-profit Winrock International, which helped design the pilot project.</p>
<p>When they do not fear losing the land, farmers are more likely to make long-term investments to increase yields, he said.</p>
<p>MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS<br />
Hannah Adjei does not know what the document says, but she clutches it tightly in a plastic envelope in the rain.</p>
<p>“If anybody comes and tries to take my land from me, this will help me prove that the land is mine,” said the 54-year-old, who received a customary land title through the pilot project.</p>
<p>Like most cocoa farmers in Nyame Nnae, Adjei is not a native of the region.</p>
<p>According to the document, the land she farms was a gift from her husband, who inherited it from his father, who obtained it through an agreement with the late chief of the district.</p>
<p>North of Ghana’s cocoa-growing regions, the landscape changes from green to brown. For decades, people from this poorer zone have migrated south and made deals with locals who owned land but required labor.</p>
<p>In the typical arrangement known as “Abunu”, a migrant farmer plants crops on uncultivated land and, when the crops mature, divides the proceeds with the landowner.</p>
<p>But this scheme disadvantages farmers in the long run, said John Bugri, a land economist.</p>
<p>Migrants can toil for generations only to get a portion of the profits and still lose their farm at any time, Bugri said.</p>
<p>“They (landowners) see the people who come and farm the land for them as a cheap source of labor,” he added.</p>
<p>“If you are a tenant farmer who’s saying, ‘Let’s document the rights’, you are the one more likely to be booted out.”</p>
<h3>DISPUTES</h3>
<p>Ghana’s Cocobod estimates that 40 percent of the country’s crop needs replanting.</p>
<p>It started its own farm rehabilitation program this month, aiming to more than double productivity in the next 10 years, said Cocobod spokesman Noah Amenyah.</p>
<p>The government hopes raising yields &#8211; and therefore incomes &#8211; will convince farmers to stay in the sector at a time when many are abandoning cocoa for illegal gold mines and rubber plantations, said Amenyah.</p>
<p>“Land tenure is a significant problem,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.</p>
<p>Cocobod will pay landowners to allow farmers to cut old cocoa without losing tenancy, he said.</p>
<p>Winrock and partners took a different approach in their pilot &#8211; holding discussions and trainings to persuade landowners to allow replanting.</p>
<p>Sitting in silver-backed chairs in their rustic town palace, the district chiefs of Asankragua have the final say over land decisions in Nyame Nnae and some 60 other villages.</p>
<p>Under customary law, land held by tenants normally reverts back to the landowner if the crops are removed, allowing him to negotiate a better deal or use it for something else, said Kwame Appiah, secretary of the chiefs.</p>
<p>But through the pilot, chiefs and landowners were persuaded that allowing farmers to replant would bring in more money, he said.</p>
<p>The land tenure documents drawn up during the project by Ghanaian startup Meridia do not meet the requirements of land deeds under formal, statutory law, said O’Sullivan of Winrock.</p>
<p>They enshrine traditional, or customary law, which is suitable for use in rural settings, he explained.</p>
<p>They also provide maps in places that have never had one &#8211; which prevents conflicts over property boundaries, the chiefs said.</p>
<h3>REHABILITATION</h3>
<p>Daniel Ntodi steps around knee-high cocoa seedlings interspersed with tree stumps in a wooded clearing.</p>
<p>He replanted last year, after a crop disease reduced his yearly yield from 20-25 bags of cocoa beans to less than 10.</p>
<p>Having a land tenure document motivated him to replant the farm, but he is not sure he could have afforded to do it on his own.</p>
<p>Farmers have difficulty accessing credit in Ghana, and most do not have the cash to pay for new seedlings &#8211; much less survive the three to four years it will take them to start producing, said cocoa supplier ECOM.</p>
<p>In the Nyame Nnae project, ECOM paid for the rehabilitation and planted plantains and maize among the cocoa.</p>
<p>The plan is for farmers to sell the food crops to pay back the investment and sustain themselves until the cocoa matures, said ECOM program manager Bismark Appiah-Kubi.</p>
<p>“It’s still a work in progress,” he said, adding that the company is working on ways to scale up the model.</p>
<p>The pilot project in Nyame Nnae saw 190 farms mapped and documented and 71 rehabilitated over a period of 11 months.</p>
<p>Meridia has done mapping and registration for thousands of farmers since it started three years ago and is in talks with companies to do more, said managing director Joseph Okyere.</p>
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<div id="google_ads_iframe_/4735792/us.reuters/world/article_7__container__">The Asankragua chiefs have requested an extension of the pilot in their district, and farmers said they expect to see record harvests when the new trees mature.</div>
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<p>“I am really happy about it because it will help me get my daily bread and look after my children,” Ntodi said.</p>
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Ghana’s cocoa industry is under threat could this be the solution?

<p>UPDATE 1-Ivory Coast&#8217;s ICP to ramp up cocoa grinding at two plants</p>
<p>ABIDJAN, June 22 (Reuters) &#8211; Ivory Cocoa Products (ICP) and Eurofind Group plan to begin cocoa grinding at a new 32,000 tonne plant near Ivory Coast’s main city of Abidjan by 2019, with capacity doubling by 2021, ICP’s Managing Director Ismael Al Khalil told Reuters on Friday.</p>
<p>ICP also plans to increase grinding capacity at an existing factory in the southern port city of San Pedro from the current 50,000 tonnes to 75,000 tonnes by 2021, Al Khalil said.</p>
<p>The expansion will make ICP the fourth-largest grinder in Ivory Coast, the world’s top cocoa producer, behind Barry Callebaut, Olam and Cargill.</p>
<p>The new plant will mostly produce cocoa butter and cake. By increasing its capacity, it expects to receive tax benefits offered by the government for any increase in capacity, Al Khalil said.</p>
<p>All output from the new plant will be sold to Theobroma, a unit of Swiss-based Ecom Trading.</p>
<p>Ivory Coast is aiming to process domestically half of its cocoa bean production by 2020 in a bid to boost the value of its exports and protect its economy from the volatility of global commodity markets. (Reporting By Ange Aboa; Writing by Aaron Ross; editing by David Evans)</p>


How increasing the capacity of cocoa production will benefit Ivory Coast’s economy

<p>By Simon Brayn-Smith, Global Head of Sustainability, Olam Cocoa</p>
<p>60% of child labour is in the agricultural sector. That’s a staggering fact made only more concerning when you learn that in West Africa, where 70% of the world’s cocoa is sourced, 2.1 million children work in cocoa fields . This is an issue which agribusinesses like Olam &#8211; along with our peers, customers, NGOs, and international governments &#8211; should be thinking about 365 days a year. But today is the UN’s World Day Against Child Labour and I want to take the opportunity to share with you some of the realities on the ground from my experience as Olam’s Head of Cocoa Sustainability, and how we’re playing our part to tackle the interlocking challenges faced by cocoa growing communities across West Africa.</p>
<p>You might be questioning why, despite the efforts of an entire industry, there could still be so many instances of cocoa related child labour in 2018? Unfortunately, I can’t give you a simple answer because the hurdles to reach a child labour-free cocoa supply chain are far from easy. However, there is one issue at the heart of the problem: extreme poverty. The decision to send your child to work on a cocoa farm often comes from a place of necessity in the face of little or no income.</p>
<p>In the face of this kind of intractable situation, a joint effort across the supply chain is essential. In Olam Cocoa’s role as the world’s leading exporter of cocoa from Africa, we are focusing our efforts to eradicate child labour in our supply chain on three key areas.</p>
<p><strong>Pulling smallholders out of poverty</strong></p>
<p>It is an undeniable fact that helping smallholder cocoa farmers to increase their income will undoubtedly reduce the number of children relied upon to work on family farms. That is why Olam Cocoa provides a range of interventions that help farmers sustainably increase their productivity from coaching in Good Agricultural Practices to providing access to agricultural inputs and finance. Diversification of income is also key to improving total household income and Olam works with youth associations and women’s groups in activities such as beekeeping, intercropping and the development of community pruning teams. Alongside this, we work with local farming cooperatives to not only pay sustainability premiums to farmers but also channel investment into social infrastructure projects that help prevent child labour, such as building local schools and hiring teachers. For example, in the Ivory Coast, our teams on the ground work to support 10 sustainability programmes, involving 85,000 farmers and paid over USD$23 million in sustainable crop premiums to over 185 cooperatives across the country.</p>
<p><strong>Identification and remediation</strong></p>
<p>Shifting cultural attitudes around child labour is crucial and requires a hefty investment of time and resources. We have been active in developing the Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation Systems (CLMRS), a system that involves each cocoa producing community or cooperative electing a representative body to ensure implementation and effectiveness of the identification and remediation focused programme. In partnership with the Fair Labor Association (FLA), the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) and manufacturer customers, 180 cooperatives in the Ivory Coast, have established CLRMS initiatives with our support. However, there is still a lot more work to be done to build community trust that they won’t be punished for reporting an instance of child labour. Instead, it’s about remediation in the form of helping parents obtain the birth certificates they need to send children to school, paying school fees and offering alternative income sources like soap making or rearing small livestock.</p>
<p><strong>Harnessing data</strong></p>
<p>Technology is a crucial tool for dealing with the myriad issues at play when it comes to child labour. The Olam Farmer Information System (OFIS) collects farm level data via a smartphone to identify where vital social infrastructure like schools are lacking alongside details of farmer families, like the number and age of children, if they are attending school or living within proximity of one. With this data, working with the cooperatives, we can identify any issues and find solutions. Currently, we have 100,000 cocoa farmers in Africa registered on the OFIS platform.</p>
<p>It’s fair to say that companies such as Olam and our industry group partners like World Cocoa Foundation (WCF), CocoaAction, and ICI are making progress on the issue of child labour. But the problem is vast and it’s simply not enough to reach all 2.1 million children. More needs to be done.</p>


[EXPLAINER] Child labour in Africa’s cocoa sector: Why it’s so hard to combat and what Olam Cocoa is doing about it

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<p>London Cocoa rose 0.2 per cent earlier today to 1,832 pounds a tonne, boosted by the weakness of sterling against the dollar and in line with current expectations of a boom market.</p>


Is the global cocoa market set for a boom?

<p>ABIDJAN, Feb 19 (Reuters) &#8211; Hot weather and below-average rainfall in most of Ivory Coast’s cocoa-growing regions last week raised concerns about the quality of the April-to-March mid-crop, farmers said on Monday.</p>
<p>The world’s top cocoa producer is the midst of a dry season that runs from November to March. A bout of rain earlier in the month caused many trees to blossom, but now regular rainfall is needed for the flowers to survive and small pods to develop.</p>
<p>In the western region of Soubre, in the heart of the cocoa belt, farmers said the heat was sapping soil moisture. Data collected by Reuters last week saw just 2.3 mm of rain, 4.8 mm below average.</p>
<p>“The mid-crop will yield small beans if it doesn’t rain a lot over the next few weeks,” said Lazare Ake, who farms in the outskirts of Soubre.</p>
<p>However, in the southern region of Divo, farmers said light showers last week would still help crops resist the hot weather.</p>
<p>“For the moment there have not been many losses. Trees are loaded with small pods and we hope the mid-crop will be as abundant as last year,” said Amadou Diallo, who farms near Divo.</p>
<p>Data collected by Reuters showed rainfall in Divo was at 4.9 mm last week, 4.7 mm below average.</p>
<p>Farmers in the southern regions of Adzope, Agboville and Tiassale also remained optimistic.</p>
<p>Similar growing conditions were reported in the centre-western region of Daloa, producing a quarter of Ivory Coast’s national output, where data showed 1.2 mm of rain last week, 7.9 mm below the average.</p>
<p>Temperatures last week ranged between 28.35 and 32 degrees Celsius, compared to 27.9 and 31.7 degrees the previous week. (Reporting by Loucoumane Coulibaly; Editing by Sofia Christensen and David Evans)</p>


World’s top cocoa producer Côte d’Ivoire’s harvest under threat

<p>ACCRA, Feb 9 (Reuters) &#8211; Ghanaian officials will meet investors in Asia next week to explore new markets for a $1 billion Eurobond sale this year, government sources said on Friday.</p>
<p>The major commodity exporter is seeking favourable terms for the bond, slated for April, amid market uncertainty fuelled by the likelihood of a U.S. Federal Reserve hike that could render sub-Saharan African debt unattractive.</p>
<p>Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta and a deputy central bank governor will attempt to woo investors in Singapore and Hong Kong to the sale, which is Ghana’s sixth. Previous debt was sold mainly to investors in Europe and the United States.</p>
<p>Analysts said Ghana’s move was unlikely to yield results as Asian markets target higher quality credits such as those offered by Gulf countries.</p>
<p>“It’s an odd choice and we don’t see any interest from Asian accounts in African bonds,” a major Europe-based fund analyst told Reuters. If the Ghanaians succeeded, they would change the dynamics of the African bond market, the analyst said.</p>
<p>Ghana, which exports cocoa, gold and oil is in its final year of a $918 million credit deal with the International Monetary Fund to narrow deficit, inflation and public debt, which hit 68 percent of GDP last year.</p>
<p>The government has yet to announce lead advisors for the 2018 Eurobond sale, which it advertised in this year’s budget. (Reporting by Kwasi Kpodo; Editing by Sofia Christensen and Jon Boyle)</p>


Ghana looks to Asia for next Eurobond sale

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<p>According to the Bank of Ghana&#8217;s summary of economic and financial data, Ghana raked in 8.95 billion dollars from cocoa, oil and gold exports as at August 2017. This represents a growth of 27.8 per cent between August 2016 and the same period in 2017</p>


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[EXPLAINER] Child labour in Africa’s cocoa sector: Why it’s so hard to combat and what Olam Cocoa is doing about it

Is the global cocoa market set for a boom?

World’s top cocoa producer Côte d’Ivoire’s harvest under threat

Ghana looks to Asia for next Eurobond sale

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Cocoa

GEPA’s Dentu on what makes Rwanda attractive to investors

Ghana reinforces processing to boost cocoa returns

Ghana expects 5.8% increase in cocoa output in 2020/2021

Ivory Coast 2019/20 cocoa arrivals reached 2.004 mln t by July 31 -CCC data

RMB’s economic outlook for Cote d’Ivoire ahead of polls

Ivory Coast tax collection up 5% in 2019

Nigeria, Cameroon to agree on cocoa premium: What will this mean for Nigeria’s cocoa industry?

Here are three reasons why Ghana’s cocoa farmers are trapped by the chocolate industry

Ghana expected to produce 850,000 tonnes of cocoa in 2019/20 season, at the lower end of average levels…Here’s why

Boosting Nigeria’s cocoa yields

Ghana’s cocoa industry is under threat could this be the solution?

How increasing the capacity of cocoa production will benefit Ivory Coast’s economy

[EXPLAINER] Child labour in Africa’s cocoa sector: Why it’s so hard to combat and what Olam Cocoa is doing about it

Is the global cocoa market set for a boom?

World’s top cocoa producer Côte d’Ivoire’s harvest under threat

Ghana looks to Asia for next Eurobond sale

Ghana’s export revenues hit $8.9bn

News Tips

Advertise With Us

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