‘In Africa's fields, a plan to pay fair wages for chocolate withers’ 4 April 2023

Ivorian cocoa bean farmer Edouard Kouame Kouadio expects to die poor, despite rising demand for the raw material that feeds the world's insatiable appetite for chocolate. More chocolate than ever is eaten globally, but a flagship programme launched in 2019 that promised a living wage to growers like Kouadio in top cocoa producers Ivory Coast and Ghana has left many worse off, data and interviews with growers, traders and industry experts show. Kouadio and more than a dozen Ivorian farmers consulted by Reuters said they were paid well below a price set by the government, itself lower than the price promised when the scheme was launched.

…Eleven industry experts blamed the situation on surpluses that have kept cocoa cheap globally, as well as on chocolate companies, global commodity buyers and intermediaries in the field seeking to protect margins. They cited inherent flaws in the government programme, including a lack of supply management. The failure of the living wage scheme to boost or even protect farmer incomes is a blow to global efforts to make the production of chocolate bars more ethically sound after years of promises to purge the industry of child labour, poverty and rampant deforestation. In the four decades Kouadio has cultivated cocoa, a proliferation of small plantations radically changed Ivory Coast, helping power a fast-growing export economy and almost completely eradicating once-abundant rainforests.

…Ivorian agents who buy beans from growers deep in the countryside say they pay below farmgate prices to cover their expenses, deducting for quality flaws, as well as transport and packing costs. "The growers accept our price because they have no choice. It's that or nothing and his cocoa will rot with him," said Ali Diarrassouba, a buyer in Daloa, in central Ivory Coast…To protect the farmgate price, Ivory Coast began issuing identity cards last year that track the origin of the cocoa, while allowing direct electronic payments from exporters. Yves Brahima Kone, director general of state regulator the Coffee and Cocoa Council told Reuters 300,000 cards have been issued, reducing the power of intermediaries to demand lower prices.