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INTRODUCING “KWAME ON COCOA” COLUMN ON BARTALKS

The cocoa chocolate industry is one of the most complex to understand. While over 4 million smallholder cocoa farmers produce over 4 million metric tons of cocoa beans a year, their national governments receive less than $10bn, from an industry worth over 130bn.

I mentioned countries, not the cocoa farmers because, in Ghana, the farmer is entitled to only a percentage of a price they have no hand in setting. Currently, they receive an estimated 65% of the world market price from the sector regulator, although this is an improvement on the 1%, they received in the 1950s.

To the cocoa farmer, sustainability is heavily influenced by economics. The situation-specific issues that underpin what is termed child labour, its misguided definitions and the solution ascribed to it raise a lot more complex questions than quick answers. Value addition, which many researchers suggest as the strategy to improve farmers’ livelihoods, also faces many roadblocks, inadequately explained in academic research papers and the mainstream media.

During my master’s studies at the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester, I was regularly frustrated by the inadequate understanding of the cocoa sector by some of the stakeholders, that discussed it in research papers and conferences. yet they were the ones seen as the “Expert” of the sector. There was also an inadequate representation of the voices of people, with lived experience in the sector, that could provide context and a nuanced explanation to ongoing discussions. I argue that this inadequate understanding of the sector and the lack of representative voices, has led to the development of ineffective sustainable livelihood strategies for cocoa farmers, hence leading to the value captured by cocoa farmers dropping from 16.3% in 1980 to 3% today.

So, as a cocoa farmer’s son who has managed cocoa related industrial and plantations projects, my complex relationship with the sector, offered me a unique perspective and understanding, that was not represented in the mainstream discussions. The other sectoral experience I have gained working in Oil & Gas, The telecoms industry, ICT, the apparel sector etc, also gave me different skillsets and tools, that allow me to explore the cocoa and chocolate industry in a more unconventional way. to elucidate real issues, workable solutions, and ways that stakeholders like the cocoa farmers can be collaborated with, in a more meaningful way, and to ensure value distribution quality.

For example, the fact that the cocoa farmer and the indigenous Ghana investor, cannot venture into cocoa processing, without the consent of a colonial institution in London called the Federation of Cocoa Commerce. About 95% of professionals within the sector, do not actually know about the FCC and the role they continue to play in the sector, until I wrote an article about them.

So, in the last two years, I started writing about the cocoa-chocolate sector as a syndicated columnist (in the Business and Financial Times, The cocoa Post, Ghana Talks business, my own newsletter, the cocoa diaries and now, on Bartalks, to provide new, heterodox insights that attempt to explain the issues within the cocoa sector. I’ve also tried to offer situation-specific recommendations that suit the political, economic, technological, ecological, and legal environment of the respective stakeholder, especially the smallholder cocoa farmer.

The feedback from the public’s interaction (including cocoa sector professionals and academics) with my articles, has been incredibly positive, and demonstrated a deep knowledge gap, misinterpretation of data, and the lack of other heterodox writers. In 2021, the European Union invited me to participate in its roundtables on Deforestation, Traceability and Child Labour in the Cocoa sectors, towards developing a country-based solution for the EU. I have also been engaged as a consultant by an Agri-tech start-up, to develop a trade and sustainability strategy, that can increase their real income, and the overall livelihood of over 4,500 cocoa farmers in Cameroon.

So, the launch of the “Kwame on Cocoa” column on Bartalks is to provide you with my perspectives on issues within the sector. Parts of it will provide you with a different understanding of the issues, and proposed new ways of tackling them. I will interview various stakeholders within the sector, and present my musings on their answers. I will also be criticising the practices, actions, and policies of all stakeholders within the sector, from regulators to chocolate manufacturers, to equipment manufacturers, to farmer cooperatives.

Thank you very much and I look forward to journeying with you together towards making the cocoa-chocolate sector truly sustainable.

Author

  • Kwame Kwateng

    organisation:

    Agricultural Trade Policy Analyst | Cocoa-Chocolate Industry Expert | Digital & Industrial Project Manager | A persuasive Negotiator | Columnist. Email: Kwame.a.Kwarteng@gmail.com / Kwame.Kwarteng@PolicyCON.com Twitter: @asamoahpeters

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