Sustainable sourcing

Ghana is benefitting from the efforts being made across the cocoa supply chain to promote ethics and sustainability. Jonathan Dyson reports.

In Ghana, total cocoa production for the 2013-2014 season was forecast to be about 830,000 tonnes, according to a report by the Oxford Business Group, which noted that 835,000 tonnes of cocoa were harvested in Ghana during the 2012-2013 season, representing about 21 per cent of the global total. According to the Ghana Cocoa Board (Cocobod), there are around 800,000 cocoa farmers in Ghana, out of a total population of 25 million, and around 1.8 million hectares of land is currently used for cocoa cultivation.

Edem Amegashie-Duvon, deputy marketing manager at Cocobod, told the International Cocoa Organisation’s (ICCO) second International Workshop on Cocoa Certification, in Zurich, in March 2014, that Ghana is the “world’s leading producer of high quality good fermented cocoa.” It is, he said, the highest in theobromine and antioxidants, as measured by the ICCO, with cocoa beans uniform in size, carrying minimal defects and producing a consistent aroma for chocolate.

However, there have been long-held concerns about cocoa production labour standards in Ghana, particularly regarding child labour. A study by Tulane University, Louisiana, USA, published in 2011 found that a “projected total of 997,357 children in Ghana worked on cocoa-related activities” in 2007-2008. The university is currently undertaking further research.

Noah Amenyah, public affairs manager for Cocobod, tells Confectionery Production: “We are confident in saying that cocoa in Ghana is produced under ethically accepted practices. The methods of farming in Ghana and cocoa in particular are such that wages are not a matter of consideration. Cocoa farming is done by individuals and families who on their own decide to cultivate cocoa. They occasionally hire labour, which is available for any other farmer.”

He says that farmers “have to pay an acceptable rate to get labourers, hence a cocoa farmer cannot pay any less.” He adds that the producer price paid to farmers is not less than 70 per cent of the freight on board (FOB) price, “thus farmers are well motivated to produce cocoa.” He adds that farmers also benefit from free fertiliser and mass spraying exercises, as well as other social programmes.
Amenyah continues: “Child labour is not a serious concern in the Ghanaian cocoa industry. The Ghana Cocoa Board has for some years now done extensive work on sensitising and educating cocoa farmers and the general public on the issues of the worst forms of child labour.”

Supporting children

Indeed, Cocobod has introduced a programme called Child Education Support, which is designed to help improve learning in cocoa growing communities, through building and refurbishing schools, as well as providing libraries where necessary.

Looking ahead, Amegashie told the Zurich workshop that Ghana is determined to be recognised as a reliable source of ethically and sustainably produced cocoa. “Ghana’s economy depends on cocoa,” he says. “It is the mission of the Ghana government and Cocobod to achieve long term sustainability in the cocoa sector. This goes beyond the procurement of certificates. It is our mission to meet national, regional and international best practice for environmental protection, reduction of emissions and production.”

He outlines ongoing plans and policies designed to eliminate abusive labour and notes that Ghana signed the Joint Declaration and Framework of Action under the Harkin–Engel Protocol to reduce incidents of the worst forms of child labour by 70 per cent. The Harkin–Engel Protocol, also known as the Cocoa Protocol, is an international agreement, first signed in 2001, designed to eliminate serious cocoa sector child labour abuse, as defined by the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Convention 182, and cocoa industry forced labour, as defined by ILO Convention 29.

Amegashie says that other actions being taken in Ghana include: increased access to schooling, including free school uniforms, meals, infrastructure development and compulsory school enrolment policies; the promotion of a sustainable livelihood in rural communities, including the provision of social amenities, skills training and small-scale loan schemes for farming families; and the implementation of community based child labour monitoring systems (CLMS) and capacity building for social partners and farmers.

Ethical sourcing

The ICCO is also involved in efforts to boost ethical cocoa production in Ghana. In November 2014 it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Cairo-based African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank). The ICCO says that the MoU is designed to seal a wide ranging international programme of collaboration that aims to “boost the development of the cocoa sector in Africa, foster the long-term competitiveness of smallholder cocoa farmers and support the local cocoa and chocolate products industry, to reinforce their capacity to participate in global trade.”

Under the MoU, the ICCO and Afreximbank will work together to develop activities, secure funding, and devise and implement projects. ICCO notes that Afreximbank, through its African Cocoa Initiative (AFRICOIN) is already involved in many MoU-noted activities, having provided around €297m in financing to support cocoa processing in the four major African cocoa producing countries (Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon), with a further estimated €340m earmarked for development projects.

Chocolate brands are also driving much of the effort towards the ethical sourcing of cocoa in Ghana. A key player is UK-based Divine Chocolate, which was established in 1998, after by Kuapa Kokoo, a Ghana-based co-operative of smallholder farmers, decided to set up their own company.
Divine Chocolate is now the leading Fairtrade certified chocolate company in the UK, according to managing director Sophi Tranchell. She explains to Confectionery Production how, with the help of Twin Trading, the Body Shop, Christian Aid and Comic Relief, and a loan guarantee by the UK government’s Department for International Development (DFID), Divine Chocolate was set up. In 2006 Body Shop donated its shares in Divine to Kuapa Kokoo, increasing its share to 45 per cent. Two representatives from Kuapa Kokoo sit on Divine Chocolate’s board.

Tranchell says that today, Kuapa Kokoo has 85,000 members from over 1,250 Ghanaian villages, and Divine Chocolate has an annual turnover of €10m. Since it was established, Divine Chocolate has achieved total sales of more than €129m, and has delivered to the farmers – in addition to cocoa income and Fairtrade premiums – more than €2.5m in producer support and development. She says that this has allowed the farmers to invest in community improvements, such as water, healthcare, education and sanitation, as well as training, female empowerment, farming methodologies and nurturing the co-operative’s democracy and accountability.

“Divine Chocolate is a Fairtrade company – that is, all our products are certified by the Fairtrade Foundation. Kuapa Kokoo is a certified Fairtrade cocoa supplier. Both Divine Chocolate and Kuapa Kokoo are independently audited every year to ensure all Fairtrade standards are maintained. These cover ensuring finances are distributed to farmers, health and safety standards, labour standards, gender equality and environmental standards,” says Tranchell. She adds that Kuapa Kokoo has set out its own policies and programmes to raise awareness of child labour.

Traceability

Switzerland’s Lindt & Sprüngli is also heavily focused on the ethical sourcing of cocoa in Ghana. Nina Keller, a Lindt spokesperson, says: “Lindt strongly condemns child labour and remains committed to eradicating it from cocoa production.” She notes that Lindt stopped sourcing cocoa beans from Ivory Coast in 2006 to prevent the use of trafficked and forced labour.

“Our West African beans exclusively originate from Ghana, where we have implemented a programme to ensure 100 per cent traceability,” she says. “This means we know the farmers we do business with as well as the communities where their farms are located.”
Keller explains that once the farmers have sent their cocoa beans to local representatives – who form a ‘society’ organised as a co-operative in their respective villages – Lindt’s partner, Armajaro, starts identifying and tracking the flow of the beans and pays the farmers according to price levels defined by Cocobod. After the beans are delivered to Ghana’s 67 regional cocoa districts, they are inspected, sampled and graded before being sealed in bags for transportation to the port.

There, the state-owned Cocoa Marketing Company (CMC) takes over the graded and sealed cocoa beans. Lindt’s traceable beans are stored in a separate segregated warehouse until shipment. Following price fixing between CMC and organisations such as Armajaro, the beans are prepared for shipment. “The limited involvement of the Ghanaian state concerning cocoa bean collection, quality control and export ensures stable and identical prices for all farmers during a harvest season as well as high product quality,” notes Keller.

She adds that Lindt pays a premium for cocoa it purchases in Ghana, enabling the Source Trust to fund programmes designed to improve the livelihoods and communities of cocoa producers. Keller says that this work has helped the company to address trafficking and labour concerns. These include independent verification source farms. In 2012, Lindt initiated a programme of independent verification of its traceable cocoa supply. She says this is undertaken by accredited third party auditors and aims to assure the absence of trafficking, forced labour and the worst forms of child labour. Its goal is to verify all of Lindt’s Ghana supply networks by 2016, and other cocoa source countries by 2020.

Conclusion

If it is successful, Lindt will have played a part, along with Cocobod, Divine Chocolate and others in driving labour malpractice out of Ghana’s cocoa sector, boosting the brand and easing concerns among chocolate makers that their good name might be damaged by practices that are out of their control.