Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has been urged to step up deliberations with chocolate manufacturers and other companies in the cocoa value chain working with cocoa farmers to support implementation of the $400 Living Income Differential (LID) to the benefit of farmers.
The LID introduced by the world’s two biggest producers of the cocoa bean prescribes an extra $400 per tonnage of cocoa sold to bulk buyers. The LID is aimed at improving the lives of cocoa farmers in the two countries.
Making the call on the state cocoa agency at the 2021 West Africa Regional Fairtrade Congress and Convention in Accra, Global CEO of Fairtrade, Dr Nyagoy Ngyong’o, stated that COCOBOD should also engage the European Union (EU) on its threat to boycott purchases of Ghana’s cocoa on the back of child labour issues and illegal mining in cocoa areas.
But the European Union (EU) has also denied reports of threatening to ban cocoa from Ghana over illegal mining practices and child labour issues stating that although the Union is developing a legislation that will impose obligations on EU companies to purchase products that are produced sustainably across the value chain as a way to ensure that methods used in production protect the environment and benefit farmers economically, the legislations are in no way targeted at Ghana.
“Sustainability has become a priority in the EU, European consumers want to know what they are consuming. The idea is that they want to know that the value chain of products they are consuming in Europe do not contain unstainable elements. It is accelerating now particularly because of the European green deal.”
“The priority of this European administration is to have a climate neutral continent by 2050, and we cannot only look at what happens in Europe; we have to also look at what happens outside. But there is another element which is the economic sustainability. Everybody knows that cocoa farmers are getting too little of the cake and we know this is not a sustainable situation,” stated the Head of the EU Mission to Ghana, Ambassador Diana Acconcia.
The implementation of the $400 LID by Ghana and Ivory Coast has faced some constraints as some of the world’s major chocolate manufacturers are unwilling to pay the extra amount for farmers in the two countries.
This led to Ghana and Ivory Coast cancelling all cocoa sustainability schemes that U.S.-based Hershey for instance, operated in their respective countries, accusing the chocolate maker of trying to avoid paying a cocoa premium aimed at combating farmer poverty.
The sustainability schemes run by the major chocolate firms certify cocoa as sustainably sourced, allowing them to market their chocolate as ethical and charge a premium for it.
