Cocoa Barometer goes multi-lingual and calls for renewed help for poor farmers By Anthony Myers The influential Cocoa Barometer, a biennial review of sustainability in the cocoa sector, is now available in French, Spanish and Dutch - in addition to the original language English version – to represent the major languages where cocoa is grown, traded or processed.
Released in 2020, the latest Cocoa Barometer also includes new visual material outlining the key challenges and possible solutions for the cocoa sector.
The review has been critical in the past regarding certified cocoa from the chocolate companies in-house schemes. “
Most companies report significant progress in traceability of cocoa sourcing, though definitions of traceability differ. The race for certified volumes has not led to the bar being raised, and with a wider range of interventions at the sector’s disposal, the relevance of certi
Ivory Coast Arrests 4 for Trafficking Children to Cocoa Growers
Feb 07 2021, 4:03 PM
February 07 2021, 3:31 PM
February 07 2021, 4:03 PM
(Bloomberg) Ivory Coast police arrested four alleged child traffickers and rescued 19 children suspected of being transported to work on cocoa plantations in the West African nation.
(Bloomberg) Ivory Coast police arrested four alleged child traffickers and rescued 19 children suspected of being transported to work on cocoa plantations in the West African nation.
The police operation took place during the transportation of the children said to be from the neighboring nation of Burkina Faso from the north of Ivory Coast to the southeastern town of Aboisso, according to an official.
Chocoa 2021 goes virtual to keep sustainability at the forefront of the cocoa sector By Anthony Myers Key Amsterdam conference promises a virtual platform providing unique networking opportunities for the cocoa and chocolate industry.
The ninth edition of the influential Chocoa festival and conference has a different look and feel this year when it will be launched as virtual event from 24 February until 26 of February.
Always an early highlight of the conference calendar for the cocoa and chocolate industry, this year’s programme will be centred around the theme of child labour, an apt topic as 2021 has been designated International Year for the Elimination of Child labour.
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Chocolate demand remained strong throughout the pandemic as the world s most popular comfort food was one of the pleasures continued to enjoy from their own homes.
The farmers who grow precious cocoa, however, saw little benefit.
Cocoa is the essential ingredient of chocolate and has no substitute. More than 70 per cent of the world s supply of cocoa comes from West Africa, according to Netherlands-based industry monitor Cocoa Barometer.
Of this, half comes from just two countries – Ghana and Ivory Coast. Other regional countries such as Nigeria and Cameroon are also expanding production, keen to grab a slice of the market that supplies the $130 billion chocolate industry.
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1 BITTER TRUTH: Had cocoa farmers got MSP over the decades, it would have helped millions lift themselves out of poverty and hunger. Reuters
Devinder Sharma
Food & Agriculture Specialist
ALL of us like chocolates. But the next time you bite into a chocolate bar, do remember that the average income a cocoa farmer earns a day is probably less than the price of a medium-sized bar that is in your hands. About Rs 100 ($1.3) a day is what a cocoa farmer in West Africa earns.
At a time when the $210-billion global confectionery industry has been growing by leaps and bounds, with chocolate taking the highest market share, the biennial Cocoa Barometer 2020 report illustrates how the prevailing market-driven business model leading to excessive profits for the chocolate industry is based on achieving higher productivity of cocoa that in turn has kept five to six million cocoa farmers perpetually in poverty. Discarding the dependence on markets, if only cocoa farmers had received