Despite an agreement with Ghana on a more remunerative price for farmers, Côte d’Ivoire is unable to maintain the price of its cocoa. The pandemic and sluggish demand are not helping, but the manufacturers are also playing their part.
Ecam, Ecamom and Necaayo are three Ivorian cocoa cooperatives who followed TDC’s marketing coaching programme. In this documentary, we follow them and their coach Christine during the final coaching sessions. The producers explain how they experienced the whole process, how their capacities were strengthened and how they see the future.
In 2020, ECAM and SCINPA were voted the best and second best cocoa cooperatives in Ivory Coast. Both received coaching in marketing from the Trade for Development Centre between 2016 and 2019.
Ecam, Ecamom and Necaayo are three Ivorian cocoa cooperatives who followed TDC’s marketing coaching programme. In this documentary, we follow them and their coach Christine
Within the framework of the Beyond Chocolate partnership, Chocolaterie Galler is joining forces with the Trade for Development Centre (Enabel), the Yeyasso cooperative in Ivory Coast, the University of Ghent and ZOTO to carry out a pilot project for the development of high-quality organic cocoa.
According to a report by the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI)*, child labor in Côte d’Ivoire’s cocoa sector increased during the lockdown brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
What brings together farmers from the North and from the South of the globe? Doubtlessly they share more than one would believe at first sight. Beside their love for the land and fight for a fair income, Nathalie and Djakaridja tell us that our food system depreciates the role of farmers, women and men alike.
YEYASSO is a cooperative operating in a rather remote area in the west of Côte d’Ivoire, which had been unstable until recently because of the civil war. It used to be a coffee region primarily which – also because of climate change – has become increasingly attractive to cocoa farming
Even though cocoa was already introduced to Vietnam by the French in the 19th century, cocoa production remained marginal for more than a century. Not until 2000, a government plan was launched to promote the crop in several regions. Vietnam is still a small player on the cocoa market but it has potential. The NAPP (Network of Asia and Pacific Producers), the umbrella organisation of Fairtrade-certified producer groups in Asia, also believes in the potential of Fairtrade cocoa.
As part of its marketing coaching programme the TDC currently accompanies eight cocoa cooperatives in Côte d’Ivoire. One of these is SCINPA (Société Coopérative Ivoirienne de Négoce des Produits Agricoles), which was established in 2003 in Agboville, just north of Abidjan. With its four buy – in sites SCINPA is a trustworthy partner reaching 3000 members in the region. The cooperative has progressed much and has built quite some trust over the years, for instance by investing in community projects such as schools and water pumps and because it has always defended the interests of farmers even during political turmoil. SCINPA has one major customer: Cargill. It co-sponsors Utz certification and the farmer field schools.
