Hopedance

A Luscious Exploration of 3 Fair-Trade-Certified
Cocoa Cooperatives
by Tom Neuhaus

Tom Neuhaus has written about fair-trade chocolate in an earlier issue (see http://www.hopedance.org/archive/41/articles/70.html). When he recently returned from Ghana I asked him to give HopeDance readers an update. When I took a look at his website of photos from his trip I was delighted to see not only photos about the fair trade chocolate industry but photos that dealt with their energy and resource needs: wind, water as energy and catchment of water. So I decided to use some of those photos since the special issue is about surviving peak oil. Perhaps we can become a "sister" city with Ghana and learn from each other about energy? - Editor

Whether you chew a chocolate bar, savor chocolate mousse, or sip hot cocoa, you are relishing the fruits of Theobroma cacao, a tree cultivated by millions of small farmers in West Africa. This part of Africa, which includes Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, and Cameroon, starts just above Congo and follows the westward curve of the continent’s coast, bordering a portion of the Atlantic known as the Gulf of Guinea.

West Africa is of great importance to American culture and American history. Both Ghana and Ivory Coast are the genetic, geographic and cultural origins of African-Americans. Jazz and other forms of "American" music and dance started in West Africa, as did Southern cuisine, which owes much of its hybridized methods of cookery and ingredients to the intermarrying of escaped African slaves and Native-Americans.

Despite our continued and abiding ignorance of this area to which we Americans owe so much, West Africa continues to assert its importance. Today, over 70% of the world’s cocoa comes from West Africa. In the U.S., the Snickers Bar, M&Ms, the Nestle line of chocolates, Hershey bars, hot chocolate, and fudge sauce start on millions of West African cocoa farms that are typically between 5 and 50 acres in size, tended by a husband, a wife and eight children. Incidentally, I use the word cocoa to mean cocoa beans. In French and Spanish-speaking countries, the word for cocoa beans is cacao.

This past summer, I visited three Fair Trade-certified cocoa cooperatives. Ihad several reasons to go on this trip. One, I wanted to establish connections with and explore ways of helping the three African Fair Trade-certified cocoa cooperatives, located respectively in Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Cameroon. Two, I wanted to know more about the cocoa business and about how Fair Trade helps cocoa farmers. Three, I wanted a deeper understanding of the child-labor issues in West Africa. And four, I wanted to continue to develop my knowledge of West African food.

During four days in Ivory Coast, I met the General Manager and other officials of Kavokiva cooperative, then interviewed Monsieur Didier Buecher, CEO of SACO, a large chocolate processor owned by Barry-Callebaut, and interviewed Madame Nadine Assemien, Secretary of the Bureau International du Travail, a U.N. agency charged with the task of monitoring child labor in Ivoirian villages.

Then I traveled to neighboring Ghana, where I re-visited my friends at the Kuapa Kokoo cooperative in Kumasi. I traveled to Edumfe, a village in southwestern Ghana where I delivered a check for $1500, money that I had raised selling an assortment of chocolates called "Chocolates for Kuapa Kokoo." On our return to Kumasi, I participated in an informational session attended by regional officials of Oxfam, an NGO that is working to build small businesses in Africa, and three MPs or (British) Members of Parliament. They had rented a fancy touring van and were visiting farms in Northern and Southern Ghana. I described my business to them (Sweet Earth Organic Chocolates) and we enjoyed some political banter, especially about the U.S. presidential elections which provide Europeans (especially politicians) a certain degree of entertainment. If only American politicians would do fact-finding trips about Fair Trade to West Africa! It would certainly help our standing in that area of the world.

On September 4, I took a plane from Accra, Ghana, to Douala, Cameroon. Here, I was picked up by Schwarz Agbor, the General Manager of MacefCoop, located in Mamfe, Cameroon. We drove a 4X4 over the world’s worst roads and through the second wettest spot on earth. After eight hours through virgin equatorial rainforest, we arrived in Mamfe. There, I spent two days touring villages and cocoa farms and talking with the farmers about their needs. Our trip back was marked by a small adventure: the car skidded from the bumpy road into a ditch and tipped over. Fortunately, we were wearing our seatbelts! We climbed out the passenger side door, which was now the roof, while children from the neighboring village came to gawk. A passing van with 12 able-bodied men helped us tip the car upright and we proceeded on our way to Kumba, 3 hours from Douala. We stood around in the rays of the failing sun while three 15-year-olds toiled over all the bumps and scrapes, banging the metal back in place, and repairing lights and mirrors while the head mechanic sweated underneath the car, repairing and reattaching the drive-train. In the third world, you don’t buy replacement parts. You repair the old ones.

I fulfilled all four of my goals and came home well, rested, and full of ideas. I accomplished goal one: I visited all three cooperatives and spent time with the top levels of management. I came away with several ideas about how my company could help them. The ideas all center around diversification. I learned that in the average family, the male grows the cocoa and coffee while the female takes care of the children and runs alternate businesses. Diversification refers to the efforts of cooperatives to help their members, particularly the women, raise money with other crops. In Ivory Coast especially, one sees women and children on the sides of the road selling peanuts, freshwater shrimp, roasted plantains, boiled "plums," frozen bags of water or ginger juice, loaves of bread, cassava fritters, and so on. Perhaps one could facilitate diversification by providing solar powered juicers and freezers. Given that all three countries are fully tropical and therefore hot year-round (actually, hotter in the winter because that’s the dry season), promotion of ice production and sales as well as frozen tropical juices is a good idea. Why not provide freezers and juicers along with solar power stations? Each village could have such a set-up, and women would share it. Given that electricity is rarely functional and even when it works, it burns out motors, solar power seems to be the answer.

My second goal, to learn more about the cocoa business and how Fair Trade helps the farmer was also achieved. I was very fortunate to speak to several highly knowledgeable sources, particularly the General Manager of Kavokiva, Monsieur Bamba Mamadou and Monsieur Didier Buecher, the CEO of SACO mentioned earlier. From these conversations, I learned that there are three levels of purchasing of cocoa: one, the lowest quality and payment to the farmer, is by pisteurs or Licensed Buying Agents. The second level is the multinationals. And the third is the cooperatives, of which Fair Trade-certified cooperatives provide the highest payments and ensure the highest quality beans. I also learned that cell phones (which actually work quite well, unlike the electricity) provide ready access to markets. A GM of a cooperative can telephone a potential buyer in Holland or Germany and in minutes clinch a deal. No intermediary to drive the price up while depriving the farmer of his or her profit. The buyer knows that the cooperative will ensure quality, as they teach their members about proper fermentation and drying of the beans as well as proper growing techniques. Having visited Kuapa Kokoo in Kumasi, Ghana, last year and then returned this year, I can readily attest to how the system is working.

My third goal was to develop a deeper understanding of the child labor issues in West Africa. I have now visited dozens of cocoa farms and villages. Granted, I was driven around by members of cooperatives. And granted, cooperatives would be least likely to have something to hide. But the one message that sticks in my mind is this: the problem with child labor is multifaceted. Fair Trade will help, but it will not solve all the problems, which include fidelity. The heads of many families often have girlfriends on the side. Not only does this result in more children, but it deprives the legitimate children access to the little capital that he earns. And, it spreads AIDS. A second factor is the lack of support from the government, which charges money for educating children, especially at the junior and senior high school level. A third factor is farm size. The plots have gotten too small to support families. A fourth factor is efficiency. Although intercropping, where as many as a half-dozen tropical crops are mixed together, is better for the environment, a farm reaches a certain level of inefficiency with this method. There are surely many other reasons for the current poverty on West African farms, where the average farmer earns approximately $1 per day. Fair Trade is a start. Kuapa Kokoo, with its 40,000+ members and its excellent staff, and owning 30% of the British Day Chocolate Company, is on the right track. At my last visit, I saw dozens of signs commemorating that this well or that school that had been built by Kuapa Kokoo. A Fair Trade cooperative performs the same functions as an NGO, except this time, there is buy-in from the local people.

Fourth and finally, I did continue to develop my appreciation of West African foods. I ate pangolin and antelope for the first times. I learned about "melon" in Cameroon, which consists of the seeds of a particular melon that are decorticated, chopped, and mixed with vegetables. I ate roasted plantains, fresh-water shrimp, all sorts of steamed fish in Ivory Coast, roasted lamb with a spice powder, a green paste wrapped in leaves that somehow reduces hunger, the boiled "plums" mentioned earlier, and finally, the most interesting of all, miracle fruit. While walking through one patch of virgin forest, I came across little red fruits on the forest floor. One of my companions cut it in half with a machete and I tasted it. A strong sweet sensation spread through my mouth, and for hours after that, everything I ate or drank tasted sweet.

I accomplished all four of my goals. And I had great fun and adventure in the process. I think that I can say, "Mission Accomplished."

To see pictures of my trip, visit: http://community.webshots.com and search for member: tomneuhaus. To learn more about my company, Sweet Earth Organic Chocolates, visit http://www.sweetearthchocolates.com.

Tom Neuhaus, PhD is an Associate Professor at Cal Poly and an active member of the Sustainable Agriculture Resource Center at Cal Poly. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .