Ghanaian Cocoa Producers Unveil Bittersweet Truth Behind Chocolate Market

As the world celebrated World Chocolate Day last Thursday, Sputnik Africa sat down with experts in the field to discuss the current situation on the cocoa and chocolate markets.

West Africa remains a major cocoa producer and supplier to the world and will continue to be an important supplier for the next 100 years, according to Fuad Abubakar Mohammed, head of Ghanian cocoa marketing company.

But to continue to be one of the important players, it requires "to invest a lot of effort in yield improvement."

"Now, if we prioritize yield improvement, what it means is that West Africa can easily double up its output. That is not to say that that will push up farm prices lower. Cocoa or chocolate demand has always run at par with cocoa output, except in very few years," Mohammed said.

Chocolate companies are under pressure to make sustainability and human rights environmental criteria necessary, the head of the marketing company emphasized. It becomes a law if it's necessary, and violators are penalized. Sustainability requires talking about farmer economic growth, which involves cocoa prices.

"But in recent years, we've seen the consequence of relegating issues of cocoa farmers' prices to the background, and it has come to the fore," he said. "So, our expectation is that prices will become a key topic, and the narrative would change so that the chocolate industry would understand that without the farmer, there is no chocolate. And without chocolate, there are no mega businesses to run."

Yet, the responsibility of the situation with the prices lies not only on the farmers but also on "the actions of bigger players — the chocolate company and the speculators who drive at what price cocoa is being purchased."

In an effort to provide some relief to farmers, the Cote d'Ivoire-Ghana Cocoa Initiative was established in 2018 to jointly influence global cocoa prices and the chocolate market.

"I still struggle to understand why Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, and Ecuador producing nearly over 70% of global cocoa. And we still call it a commodity, i.e., prices are supposedly derived from the futures market. [...] We tend to believe that it is the futures [market] that determines the prices," the expert explained.

According to him, "prices of cocoa should reflect the cost of production of the farmer." Moreover, the speculators on the market make the biggest profit "when it comes to high prices or volatile markets."

"That is the only way the farmer can produce sustainably by making sure that the environment is protected and making sure that they adhere to human rights with issues of child labor, fair wages, among others, being respected," Mohammed said.

His stance was reflected by Issifu Issaka, cocoa farmer, networking coordinator for Cocoa Farmers Cooperative Association of Ghana, who underlined the contribution of cocoa production to the economy of Ghana.

"Cocoa has done a lot to the entire economy. Cocoa is feeding more than 3 million people as we speak in Ghana, from cocoa farmers, license-buying companies, haulage that transport cocoa, people who work in the regulatory sector and then NGOs," Issaka told Sputnik Africa.

The farmer highlighted that "consumers even do not know that cocoa farmers are left in poverty in the expense of chocolate companies making billion dollar profit at the end of the day."

Issaka urged "to raise the voice of the farmers" by making sure they get the right information, because "many farmers are also unaware of the revenues that flow into the cocoa sector."

He added that there is a need to include the farmers in the decision-making process by putting them at the table.

"Cocoa value chain is giving out $170 to $180 billion revenue gains. And out of this, just 6% goes to production, 93% finds itself into the processing and chocolate manufacturing and retailers. So 93% goes to these manufacturers. And at the end of the day, if there is no cocoa, there is no chocolate," he underlined.