It’s quite difficult to relate the multibillion-dollar chocolate industry with the economic status of cocoa farmers, yet we know that there is no such thing as chocolate without cocoa. The per capita daily income of cocoa farmers is less than the 1.25 dollar-a-day benched marked as the poverty line. It is really shocking to find out that most of the small-scale farmers in West Africa who produce over two-third of the world’s cocoa live in extreme poverty. One begins to wonder, what has gone wrong with the value chain of cocoa?

To begin with, cocoa production is highly labor intensive. The harvesting of cocoa requires constant monitoring, and work because the pods do not ripen uniformly. Also, post-harvest treatments like drying, cleaning, and packing are necessary before sales. Cocoa is susceptible to pest and disease attack as well as environmental stress, thus, farmers can easily run at loss. As a cash crop, the beans end up with intermediaries or cooperatives who sell to governmental export authorities. This makes the value chain complex. These intermediaries take advantage of the poor cocoa farmers who may be forced to sell due to lack of storage facilities, financial needs or poor living conditions. In the end, most of the money from cocoa cultivation is made after exportation to the industries. The fact that cocoa farmers receive less than 10% of the value of the world traded cocoa calls for protection of their rights and fair payment. This is important because farmers usually resolve to exploitative child labor, and poor treatment of workers in other to reduce the cost of production.

Over the years, the price of cocoa has continually declined while profits made by the chocolate industries have increased drastically. This could be attributed to a number of factors including climate change, high incidence of pests and diseases, deforestation, high export taxes, poor trading structure, increasing costs of production, unorganized farmers associations, lack of information on market development, unfavorable policies, poor extension services, and insufficient investments in research and development.

Achieving optimal cocoa production and equitable value distribution is impossible with the ‘business as usual approach’. First, adapting to climate change requires innovative, sustainable and diversified farming systems. It is important to build cocoa-ecosystem resilience to climate change-induced stress such as extreme temperature, drought, flooding, etc. Also, access to inputs through subsidies and incentives can improve all-round productivity. The consequences of vulnerable and less productive cocoa farming systems include crop failure, low yield, poor quality of beans, reduction in income, etc. More resilience cocoa cultivars can be developed through molecular breeding and genetic improvements technology while irrigation and infrastructures are required to mitigate the adverse effect of extreme weather events and improve shelf life. Also, flexible and accessible insurance schemes are important to mitigate the adverse impact of climate change on farmers’ income. All these calls for investments in research and development. Innovations from research and well-implemented extension schemes will ensure that innovations reach farmers at grassroots.

Farmers are at the receiving end of the imbalance and broken value chain of cocoa. Although, improving cocoa cropping system efficiency will improve the income and livelihood of farmers, restoring the value chain of cocoa production requires more. Fair payment of cocoa farmers, protection of the labor rights of workers, and eradicating exploitative child labor requires policies to checkmate the excesses of the middlemen or intermediate organizations. Since cocoa production is labor intensive, improved health care facilities and medical support, better working conditions are important in cocoa-producing regions.

How long will it take before the large cocoa-producing areas in West Africa begin to diminish? The younger generations are less interested in the currently unprofitable cocoa business while the older generations are reaching their life expectancy. The area of cocoa farms is declining and may further decline due to deforestation, and the use of land for more profitable businesses. Today’s booming chocolate industry may seem independent of the current status of cocoa farmers but time will tell if necessary interventions are not taken.

https://ariseagroforum.com/2019/04/25/when-cocoa-farmers-cant-afford-chocolate-the-case-of-a-broken-value-chain/

GavelSlam:
I've always wondered why we don't dominate the chocolate market itself.

Black man wake up.

I once watched a documentary where western biz guys were buying west African tobacco at 50 cents per bale.
african govts r lazy and her people r deliberately, WILLFULLY ignorant.
isok, Jesus will coman rescue dem.

so sad

Space booked•

Meanwhile instagram page with 18k followers for sale, check my signature if you're interested ■

When they have not sucked the crude oil dry........ and you expect them to switch to cocoa.

Nigeria is a failed state.......

We need Jesus Christ to come and give us the change....... No Nigeria Politicians can do it.

debaj10:
I once watched a documentary where western biz guys were buying west African tobacco at 50 cents per bale.
african govts r lazy and her people r deliberately, WILLFULLY ignorant.
isok, Jesus will coman rescue dem.

There are a lot of opportunities for us Africans to eliminate poverty. The West are taking the advantage of our ignorance. Even though we have irresponsible governments, what are our big companies, organisations, and rich individuals doing to address many of our challenges? They are busy sponsoring Big Brother Naija and many other immoral events that are destroying our values just for their selfish benefits.

Atleast Cote d'ivoire exports $3.5bn worth of cocoa and imports just $8.3m worth of chocolates into its country.. that a fair balance.

Esseite:
Atleast Cote d'ivoire exports $3.5bn worth of cocoa and imports just $8.3m worth of chocolates into its country.. that a fair balance.

The issue here is that the $3.5bn export were raw, something that could worth more than $10bn if processed in Cote d'Ivoire plus thousands of job, and other opportunities.

Jacseyi:

The issue here is that the $3.5bn export were raw, something that could worth more than $10bn if processed in Cote d'Ivoire plus thousands of job, and other opportunities.

True... but you should know they are not the only exporters and cocoa is largely distributed across Africa to capture the market, aswell as Africans are the least consumers of chocolate to create an African industry. In as much as they account for 30% of cocoa export in world, they are amongst the furthest in proximity for imports from other countries. The bargaining power is not so strong to set up a 1st class chocolate factory exported and accepted to the world because of proximity and competition.

Do you know that the moment we start refining our oil, we would loose some crude buyers? Countries would tell you since we can't patronize each other on crude sale and petrol purchase, it's best they cut cost on shipping while heading to purchase from the closest countries.

debaj10:
I once watched a documentary where western biz guys were buying west African tobacco at 50 cents per bale.
african govts r lazy and her people r deliberately, WILLFULLY ignorant.
isok, Jesus will coman rescue dem.

Africans especially Nigerians will rather attend daily religious fellowships, seminars, workshops etc than work hard or think hard.
Don't worry, grace and favor will locate them, na so their Daddy GOs dey always tell them.