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Cocoa

Cocoa Facts

• Globally, 6.7 billion pounds of cocoa is expected to be produced in the 02/03 harvest season. (International Cocoa Organization - ICCO)
• The ICCO estimates that there are approximately 14 million people directly involved in cocoa production.
• According to the European Fair Trade Association, farmers get barely 5 percent of the profit from chocolate, whereas trading organizations and the chocolate industry receive about 70 percent. This means that producers get only 5 cents from every dollar spent on chocolate, while the companies get 70 cents - 14 times more!
• West African economies are critically dependent on cocoa. Cocoa revenues account for more than 33% of Ghana's total export earnings and 40% of the Ivory Coast's total export earnings.
• West Africa has been the center of world cocoa cultivation for the last sixty years, today producing over 67% of the world's crop. Ivory Coast is the giant in world production -- with a 95% increase in output over the 1980s. It now holds 43% of the world market. (ICCO)
• 90% of the world's cocoa is grown on small family farms of 12 acres or less.
• The US State Department's year 2000 Human Rights Report acknowledged that some 15,000 children between the ages of 9 and 12 have been sold into forced labor on cotton, coffee and cocoa plantations in northern Ivory Coast in recent years.

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[Cocoa Crisis] [Fair Trade Cocoa]

Cocoa Crisis

From a peak of 197 US cents per lb. in July 1997, the price of cocoa has steadily declined - to a low of 32 US cents per lb. in November 2000. The price has recoverd to around 83 US cents per lb in early 2007 Most of these years, the price that these farmers have received has not even covered their costs let alone provides basic needs.

The low price for cocoa has been exacerbated by the deregulation of agriculture in West Africa, which abolished commodity boards across the region due to the structural adjustments demanded by the IMF and the World Bank.

Like other commodities, there are only a handful of giant multinational that control the $13 billion chocolate/candy industry:

• Hershey's and M&M/Mars control two thirds of the US market
• Cadbury, Mars and Nestle control 75-80% of the market in the U.K.

And the millions of cocoa producers are at the mercy of the big corporations who seek out the cheapest suppliers around the globe. With modern technologies, it is possible for the manufacturers to do more with low-grade cocoa rather the better quality "fine or flavour (FF) " cocoa.

Fair Trade Cocoa

Cocoa was the second commodity to be labeled as "fair Trade Certified" in the Netherlands under the "Max Havelaar" label in 1993.

• The Fair Trade Certified production criteria guarantee a minimum price and insure that no child, slave or forced labor is used. The criteria also stipulate that farmers' organizations should be organized democratically, and that plantation workers should be able to participate in trade union activities. Fair Trade producers are monitored at least once a year.
• Fair Trade cocoa is produced by cooperatives representing about 42,000 farmers from 8 countries: Ghana, Cameroon, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, peru, Panama and Belize.
• In 2000, Fair Trade cooperatives produced 89 million pounds of cocoa, but only 3 million pounds were sold at Fair Trade prices.

Sales of fairtrade cocoa have grown steadily from about 700 metric tons in 1997 to 5,657 metric tons in 2005.