Exclusive: Cocoa Barometer calls for urgent action on farmer pay, equality and forest protection

The 2025 edition of the Cocoa Barometer, produced by the Voice Network, has made renewed calls for fairer pay for farmers, protection of forests and delivery on supply chain transparency, reports Neill Barston.

Furthermore, the non-governmental organisation also cited an urgent need for improved equality within the sector, with greater prominence given to shared decision making between women and men within the industry.

The report, which was first put out in its original form back in 2008, has sought to shine a light on where the industry has delivered success, but also highlighted major areas of concern.

Moreover, as the Voice Network’s managing director Antonie Fountain (pictured main image) has observed, significant tests remain in the market. As he raised at last year’s World Confectionery Conference in Brussels, many regulatory hurdles remain, including on delivering on EUDR deforestation policy – which the EU Commission is now proposing to delay by a further year until the end of December 2026.

The European authority has cited IT infrastructure concerns as a primary reason, though there has also been considerable right-wing political pushback against the legislation, which many have argued impacts business competitiveness. 

Furthermore, the volatility in cocoa prices, which reached well over $10,000 at the start of this year, though have dropped back to under $7,000 in the past few months amid weakening demand as manufacturers look to alternatives and consumers feel the financial strain.

Speaking on the release of the Barometer, Fountain noted: “Since the last Cocoa Barometer was released, the cocoa sector has gone through some of its most turbulent times ever. In the middle of a global context that can sometimes feel like the winter of despair, the current state of cocoa should show that we are also in a spring of hope.” 

As The Voice Network noted, that despite those comparatively high market prices, most farmers remain in poverty (earning less than $1 a day in some instances in Ghana and Ivory Coast), trapped by climate stress, crop loss, as well as what are as the organisation asserted, unfair trading practices.

Consequently, as the organisation observed, that level of poverty continues to fuel deforestation, child labour, and gender inequality, while today’s production boom risks another future price crash.

Furthermore, the Voice Network added that the EU’s recent political backlash threatens to roll back hard-won human rights and environmental due diligence regulations, represented “a dangerous move at a critical time.”

In spite of this, the report shows that systemic change is possible through strong collaboration and bold regulation that it has pushed for over the past 15 years of its existence.

Writing in the foreword to the report, the authors of the latest study asserted that there remain significant challenges ahead that need to be tackled, especially in relation to EUDR and corporate due diligence laws that impact majorly on the industry.

The study stated: “While virtually all cocoa stakeholders, including industry, seemed to be aligned on the need for coordinated action on both sustainability and improving the incomes of the weakest players in the supply chain, a political shift to the right has caused fact-free pushback against the regulatory environment, denying the fundamental truth that a resilient and sustainable supply chain is a competitive one.

“It has also caused a sudden slashing of funding for sustainability worldwide,
denying our shared humanity and that we are all in the same global boat
together. It is the age of foolishness.

“This Barometer also outlines many of the major steps forward the
sector has made over the decades. It is, therefore, also a season of light. In the
middle of a global context that can sometimes feel like the winter of despair, the current state of cocoa is at should show that we are also in a spring of hope. There is hope, not because is everything is as it should be or because we have the certainty that everything will turn out right. No, there is hope because we have concrete evidence that change is possible, provided our sector steps to the plate and does its best.”