Dark Chocolate
The cocoa industry is deeply conflicted. Brands use slogans like ‘Moments of Timeless Pleasure’ and ‘Enjoy Life’ to promote their smooth chocolate, which could not be further from the harsh realities of cocoa farms; where many workers live on less than 80p per day.
How is it that an industry worth $45 billion and spends millions on celebrity endorsements can turn a blind eye to child labour? How is it that cocoa traders can make more from an annual bonus than a cocoa farmer will in a lifetime?
There must be another way.
Though there have been recent efforts to educate consumers and influence chocolate producers, change has been minimal. Despite what we now know, very few of the chocolate products we regularly consume are made with certified cocoa. How many of the chocolate bars and biscuits, cakes and pastries, drinks, sweets, and sprinkles that contain cocoa, are fairly traded? In truth, we are unlikely to have given it any thought. And so, while appalled by the conditions under which cocoa farmers live and work, we continue to endorse this broken industry. In effect, we place our consumer rights before their human rights.
Something must change.
Vision
Empowerment through creating an equitable market
Become a leading exporter of Liberian cocoa.
Train Liberian farmers to become producers of the world’s finest sustainable cocoa.
Ensure profits and power are fairly shared with farming communities.
Cocoa Trading
As with all commodities, the purchasing price will always be driven down, whereas the sales price will always be inflated to the maximum. It is also true that the more you have, the more power you can exert. Accordingly, farmers have the least influence in the industry and are exploited by traitants who purchase local stock from a number of cooperative and sell to international traders. As a general rule, the further one moves from the farm, the more money they will make. For each rung climbed up the ladder, quantities, profit margins, and power are increased. So, farmers earn the least and chocolate producers the most. The difference between one rung and the next is stark: where as farmers struggle to buy food and can seldom afford to educate their children; traitants can enjoy an international, luxury lifestyle.*
However, we are in the midst to an economic shift that places greater value in digital, intangible, ecological, and human assets. The cocoa industry is behind the curve and is under threat from its own exploitative practices.
We will establish a trading company that looks to the horizon; placing the appropriate value in the knowledge and expertise of farmers and the careful cultivation of their land.
Starting small - growing big
We will begin by working with a very small group of farmers with whom we will develop exemplary agricultural and trading standards. Supplying high-end chocolate makers with higher-valued ethical and bespoke cocoa will maximise early viability. We have already established good connections with a trading body who are prepared to buy our wield and help us become established. We intend
However, our intention is to grow to become one of the leading exporters in Liberia, changing the industry from within and eventually supplying the main market. It should not be the case that chocolate producers have a choice between buying certified stock: ethically traded and ecologically grown, or not; all cocoa should come with that guarantee. For this reason, our sustainable business model will be built around value added, as opposed to the high risk approach of maximising and withdrawing equity.
Historically, traitants work together to fix the local price of cocoa. Rather than competing in a bidding war, they agree to operate in separate regions; thus farmers have only two choices: to accept the offer they are given or let their yield spoil. Simply by entering the market and creating competition and choice, we will positively affect the price of cocoa and the treatment of farmers. The choice will become whether to invest in a minority share of a sustainable industry, or a majority share in a dying market.
Entering a saturated market
The cocoa industry is currently saturated, meaning there is more cocoa being produced than is required by chocolate makers, or demanded by the consumer countries. This has affected the price of cocoa, which has been shouldered almost exclusively by farmers. We will, therefore, work with existing farms, rather than further exacerbating the issue. This also means that we will be working with experienced farmers and established trees, which might otherwise take up to five years to produce mature pods.
*For more information regarding the anecdotal wealth divide, please read my personal story.
The world’s finest cocoa
The longterm sustainability of the cocoa industry is mirrored through its sustainable (or not) practices.
We will implement and build on the best practices that many farmers know, but few are empowered or incentivised to employ. The knowledge exists, but for farmers who live hand-to-mouth, changing practices for little or no reward is time consuming and considered an unnecessary risk.
We want to incentivise farmers to use the best practices and to produce yields of which they are proud. Cocoa should be the pride of Liberia; a crop of liberation and never slavery.
A badge of excellence
Farmers wanting to trade with us will be required to meet the highest agricultural standards, ensuring all reasonable steps are made to improve bean size and decrease acidity, moisture, and mould, and to protect the farm and environment. Farms that meet these standards will be rewarded with a badge of excellence, a prerequisite of our trade.
The badge serves three purposes:
It ensures a high standard of produce;
Ensure land is respected and protected;
It is a small step towards encouraging farmers to take pride in their industry. We want cocoa farmers to be proud of their industry and work, for that, it must be rewarded and celebrated.
Liberian Cocoa
Viewed on the global stage, Liberia is a very small producer of cocoa, trading less than 9,000 tonnes each year. Internally, cocoa is controlled by a very small group of traders, it is unclear whether this presents a barrier to market or an opportunity.
Overhauling the agricultural practices of a major cocoa producing nation would be a huge undertaking, but Liberia’s cocoa production is small enough that it is a real possibility.
Liberia sits besides the cocoa giants: Ivory Coast (roughly 2,000,000 tonnes) and Ghana (900,000 tonnes).
Community Empowerment
Cocoa will be considered a crop of liberation; the pride of Liberia. Farmers have always shouldered industry risk and never benefitted from the rich profits. Our business model will be based on transparency, empowerment and equality, and will always ensure that farmers are awarded with a living income.
There are several considerations that we will explore further:
Child labour
We abhor child labour in all of its guises but must also take a realistic view; it is only when we engage with the issue that we can challenge it. For many children there is no alternative to work; were they to stop, they and their families would go without food. Nor is it always true that if children stopped working, they would be in school. It is often the case that there are no affordable schools. We must work to change the industry so that a child’s education is always considered beneficial and affordable, and their labour unrequired. Rather than turning a blind eye, we should protect children as they do the work their families depend on and explore how cocoa can empower communities.
Pensions
We want to protect the rights of cocoa farmers: future, present and past. After years of exhausting work, farmers are left with zero security. We want to ensure that they can ‘continue’ a good quality of life.
Community development
We will develop a model that ensures funds are fairly shared and strategically invested so that communities thrive. We believe that farmers should have the freedom to use their earnings as they choose, but we also want to put reasonable measures in place to support sustainable empowerment and avoid simply kicking the can down the road; creating a new generation of wealthy land owners who exploit poorer labourers.
£ plans
There are several selling costs that must be incorporated into our plan: transportation, bean preparation (processing and drying), testing and storage.
The Cocoa industry at a glance
Farms
Farms tend to be informal and family operated. Often relatively isolated with only basic or informal shelter. Due to the lack of regulations, cocoa has become a slash and burn crop. *
Cooperatives
Farmers often combine yields to strengthen their selling position and share any production and transport costs.
Traitants (National Traders)
National traders buy from local farmers and cooperatives, amassing hundreds and sometimes thousands of tonnes, large-enough to trade with the international traders.
International Traders
International traders amass quantities of 10,000’s of tonnes and a variety of different specifications. This is then shipped around the world to chocolate producers.
Market Manipulation
Before cocoa reaches the chocolate producers, it is traded on the commodities market, which sets a guidance price. It is against this that quantity, quality, supply and demand are traded on.
Production
The cocoa is separated into cocoa cake (commonly solids) and cocoa butter, which are then used to make the chocolate we love, as well as a variety of other food products and cosmetics items.
Retail
Packaged up and unrecognisable from the pods picked in Liberia, but maintaining its wonderful smell, the cocoa is now at its most valuable price point and shipped for retail.
