N’Guessan Marie opens up a cacao pod with a machete to remove beans in Agboville, Cote d’Ivoire, on November 21. TATSUYA KIMURA/THE YOMIURI SHIMBUN
To help out cacao farmers plagued with poverty in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana, major producers of cacao beans who together account for about 60 per cent of the world’s output, local industry groups in the West African neighbours are set to introduce a premium system on chocolate’s main ingredient.
Under the new system to be applied to cacao sales from October this year, buyers pay a premium of $400 per tonne of cacao beans. The introduction, however, may push the price of chocolate products higher in conjunction with an increase in cacao prices.
N’Guessan Marie’s cacao farm can be reached from Abidjan – the largest city in Cote d’Ivoire – by driving north about two hours, then switching to a motorbike on a narrow, bumpy road through woods for another 30 minutes. N’Guessan, 55, who has nine children, manages the 4ha farm by herself.
After harvesting cacao pods about 20cm long, she removes the beans with a machete and dries them. Although she works nonstop for 12 hours from 6am every day, her annual income totals only about 1.5 million CFA francs ($2,550).
As the income is not enough to cover her children’s schooling, she is indebted to a local agricultural cooperative. “Despite the heavy labour, my income is very low,” N’Guessan lamented. “I just hope buyers pay more for my cacao beans.”
Kohi Aime, 48, who heads the Agboville agricultural cooperative that N’Guessan belongs to, said dried cacao beans are sold to buyers at 875,000 CFA francs per tonne, but accompanying expenses including pesticides cost a lot.
“An increasing number of young people are turning to rubber from cacao because they can’t see any bright future in cacao. Some try to leave for Europe,” Kohi said.
Under such circumstances, industry groups in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana in July decided to introduce the premium system.
Many cacao beans are exported to Japan, Europe and elsewhere to be processed into chocolate and put into the market by confectionery makers as a variety of chocolate sweets.
“Business of the chocolate industry is as big as $110 billion, but only four to five per cent of that goes to farmers, leaving them stuck in poverty,” said a senior official of the Coffee and Cocoa Council in Cote d’Ivoire, explaining the reason for introducing the premium system. The premiums are slated for being allocated mainly to farmers.
According to the Japan External Trade Organisation’s office in Abidjan, some cacao beans futures for harvest from October 2020 onward have already been traded in line with the premium payments.
In November last year, major Swiss chocolate maker Barry Callebaut AG announced that it would increase sales prices of its products by as much as the hike in ingredients prices, and some other confectionery manufacturers have admitted they will follow suit.
Major confectionery maker Lotte Co has expressed concern over the ramifications spurred by the new system. “We will carefully consider how to respond while closely watching market reactions,” said a public relations official of the company.
Some point out that imposing the premium may trigger price fluctuations, inviting an oversupply of cacao beans due to an increase in production or a decrease in demand.
Tedd George, an agricultural economist said: “The introduction of the premium system may encourage deforestation, illegal activities that have long been rampant. The introduction of such a system requires thorough consideration.”
THE YOMIURI SHIMBUN (JAPAN)/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
