How things can be different in the cocoa sector

Chocolatemakers, Bean-to-bar, Our Farmers, Chocolate, Cocoa origins

We cannot shout it often enough: things must change in the cocoa sector! Last week, a new study which shows why. In "The Dark Side of Chocolate," they do an analysis of conventional vs sustainable vs Fairtrade cocoa. In it, they zoom in on Ivory Coast and Peru. Extra interesting for us, since we are from Peru get our cocoa beans for the Awajun bar.

What goes wrong and how can it be done better? Required reading we would almost say. If you are tight on time, skip to p.17 of the report (executive summary) or read our short version below 🙂 .

The highlights

• The industry is dominated by a handful of multinationals that hold the power with it and set the rules in the market. And that is not a good thing.
• Labels still make far too little difference. Despite their 'premium prices', most cocoa farmers still live below the poverty line. Unbelievable but true.
• Deforestation, land degradation and child labour will not be reduced. What? Even more! This applies particularly to the Ivory Coast; Peru is doing much better.

What contributes to a solution?

• A higher price for the cocoa. So not a "less bad" price. No, a really higher, fair price.
• Well-organised farmers' cooperatives (and support for them) that can ensure that the money is invested in the right way.
• A strong agriculture & forestry policy.
• A (short) chain in which the value of the cocoa origin & cocoa farmer is central.

What do we do?

• We are building a cocoa factory together with farmers in Peru. This will allow the farmers to add more value to their product locally and become less dependent on the dominant players.
• We only carry the organic label. We pay the price directly to the farmers and determine it ourselves. It is substantially higher than the market price.
• We are contributing to new plantings (e.g. converting rice fields to cocoa). And we have just started a project to bring nutrient-rich raw material (struvite, who doesn't know it) from Dutch groundwater back to the cocoa plantations in the Dominican Republic. Results will follow soon!
• And of course real chocolate made in our traditional factory, which makes the world a little better. So you can enjoy it threefold.