Where does most of the cocoa we eat come from and under what conditions is it harvested?

Özgür’s research into the detection and monitoring of deforestation rates in Ivory Coast due to cocoa plantations, can make us wonder about the conditions under which cocoa is grown and harvested, and it is therefore essential to start from a very basic consideration. As Voice Network affirms, most of the chocolate of the world is consumed in Northern American and European countries, while all of the cocoa is produced in the Global South, especially in Sub-Saharan and Latin American countries. Nowadays, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana alone produce more than 60% of the global cocoa production, and Ecuador and Peru are strongly increasing theirs. Other cocoa-producing countries that cannot be overlooked are Cameroon, Nigeria, Brazil and Indonesia.

Globally the demand for chocolate is very stable and the production of cocoa increased more than 20% in the past decade. It continues to be grown by small farmers who account for 90% of the global production and in Côte d’Ivoire all the increase of cocoa production depends on the enlargement of planted areas. At this point a question automatically arises. Do Ivorian cocoa-farmers benefit from being the world’s largest cocoa-producer?

The answer is negative. According to the 2022 Cocoa Barometer, a publication that is the collection of data from civil societies of cocoa producing countries and of cocoa and chocolate companies, serious problematics on which lots of awareness campaigns have been done by human rights associations have not been solves yet and child labour, gender inequality and deforestation remain key issues in the sector. The farmers and their households are not even making a living income* out of it and poverty is the driver of all the problems in the cocoa sector. Small cocoa farmers denounce the lack of infrastructure as one of their main problems together with the lack of access to drinking water, electricity and healthcare. The economic and social situation determines a low level of education among the families and the fact that their children must work. Moreover, in Côte d’Ivoire the big cocoa harvest often falls at the beginning of the school year. Cocoa is planted, harvested and processed by hand with dangerous, unhealthy and precarious working conditions in the plantations. The major health risks are back problems caused by the carrying of heavy loads, respiratory and skin diseases because of pesticides – to which children are exposed – and risks of injuries due to the opening of cocoa fruits with machetes.

Gender inequality determines obstacles for women whose essential work in cocoa farms is often unpaid. They are excluded from having a legal access to land preventing them from becoming also farm owners, enter cooperatives. Women are known for being change agents and gender equality would be the most effective solution to face the sector’s problems.

Regarding the environment, a vicious circle has begun and extreme weather conditions are affecting cocoa production. Both the impact of the El Niño weather phenomenon and the excessive rainfalls that in 2023 hit Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, determined the outbreak of plant diseases that significantly damaged the cocoa pods. Historically farmers have tended to abandon old farms and start new in forests but these are disappearing threatening biodiversity and fuelling climate change. Plantations are being set up also in protected areas because of the lack of alternatives. Years of low incomes have driven many west African cocoa growers out of business and the lack of fair compensations for sustainable cocoa production is leading to the smuggling of cocoa to neighbouring countries and to the leasing of lands to illegal miners.

“When farmers must choose between feeding their families or sending them to school or cutting trees…they do not really have a choice. Without a living income for cocoa farmers, cocoa will never be sustainable” (2022 Cocoa Barometer)”

Actions have been done. For example, the Ghanian Cocoa Board (Cocobod) secured a loan with the World Bank to rehabilitate aging or hit by disease plantations and some of the producers have been paid more. For decades calls for higher production prices have been made, but business activities of the few companies that manage the cocoa/chocolate sector worldwide have not changed. Around 4.5 million metric tons of cocoa beans pass only through six enormous companies and none of them is paying higher prices at farm gate level, even if governmental agreements to drive up market prices are on the run.

Not all companies have adopted and implemented human rights due diligence procedures and full traceability throughout their cocoa-chocolate value chain. This is composed by: the cocoa beans production and so the growing, harvesting, fermenting and drying, the marketing of cocoa beans usually controlled by border authorities, the processing beans, the manufacturing of chocolate production and distribution and the retailing to final consumers. The chains connect small farmers and traders with multinational corporations and international price volatility directly affects smallholders’ revenues. Only an infinitesimal fraction of the billions of dollars generated by the global cocoa processing market goes to the 6 million African farmers and it is estimated that a relatively small increase of the price paid by final consumers would be sufficient to significantly increase farmers’ incomes. Cocoa traceability is another big issue that still affects half of the cocoa bought on the market meaning that there arrives also the cocoa produced on illegally deforested areas or through child labour.

To keep on cultivating cocoa under these conditions is unsustainable. Today international cocoa agreements do exist, but something is missing and there is the need for a system change that must go in the direction of farmers’ living income, human rights and environment protection. While it is all about African, Latin American and Asian interests, these are not represented by their organizations and governments and all the decision-making power is based in Global North’s companies. Historic injustices and power imbalances benefit one more time those in power that are the direct heirs of European colonization from which derives today’s cocoa trade structure and west African cash crop driven economies. Northern countries consumers can have a role in this choosing to buy only that chocolate that comes from fair and transparent production chains.

*The Living Income is the net annual income required for a household to afford a decent standard of living and this index includes elements like access to food, water, housing, education, health care, transport, clothing and other essential needs. In West Africa, cocoa farmers live below their living incomes which is estimated to be around 0.85$ a day (2022 Cocoa Barometer).