Cargill commits $5m to sustainable cocoa

14 September 2010 – Cargill has announced a three-year $5 million commitment to support sustainable cocoa in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. This includes a partnership with CARE to sponsor a new program of activities to improve the livelihoods of cocoa farmers and their families in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire.

“This commitment underlines our belief that supporting communities and training farmers is key to ensuring cocoa is produced sustainably, to increasing farmers’ incomes and to improving the livelihoods of farmers and their families in West Africa,” says Jos de Loor, managing director of Cargill’s cocoa and chocolate business.

The CARE program will expand on activities already underway in 70 cocoa growing communities to reach a total of 130 communities in the Ashanti, Brong Ahafo and Central regions of Ghana. Additionally, activities will be initiated in 10 communities in the San Pédro and Daloa regions of Côte d’Ivoire.

In addition to these activities, Cargill also provides financial support for other programs in the cocoa sector. This includes supporting the International Cocoa Initiative’s (ICI) efforts to prevent and eliminate forced and abusive child labour, as well as joining other companies in the sector to partner with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support The Cocoa Livelihoods Program, which is a five-year effort to improve the livelihoods of 200,000 cocoa farmers in West Africa. It also continues to support programs in other major cocoa growing regions around the world.

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