Rosine Bekoin
Fairtrade Fortnight 2020 focused on Cocoa farming in West Africa
On 29th February we had a chocolate themed brunch and we were privileged to be joined by Rosine, a chocolate farmer from Cote d'Ivoire. She talked to us about her life and work.
You can read an account of her visit here, which was published in the April 2020 issue of Tatsfield Parish Magazine and you can see more photos from the event on our Facebook page.
On 29th February we had a chocolate themed brunch and we were privileged to be joined by Rosine, a chocolate farmer from Cote d'Ivoire. She talked to us about her life and work.
You can read an account of her visit here, which was published in the April 2020 issue of Tatsfield Parish Magazine and you can see more photos from the event on our Facebook page.
The Ivory Coast supplies 30% of the cocoa beans for the world chocolate market and 6 million Ivorians depend for survival on the money they receive for their cocoa crop.
But the average daily income for a cocoa farmer is just a bit more than the price of a KitKat, around 6% of the value of the final product. Branded manufacturers take roughly a 44% share and retailers 35%.
The year after the price of cocoa paid to farmers in Ivory Coast fell by a third, Barry Callebaut, the world’s biggest supplier of cocoa products, posted a 12% jump in profits to $288m.
There are still more than 2 million children working in west Africa’s cocoa fields, some using hazardous chemicals or working with machetes. Trafficking and slavery remain endemic. The Fairtrade co-operatives monitor and outlaw these practices but for most families there is still the necessity for children to help with appropriate tasks after school.
Research suggests that the most effective ways of changing that situation is through greater empowerment of women in what remain highly patriarchal communities. There are 18 steps in cocoa preparation and women do 15 of them, but few have legal title to land or much say in decision making.
Which is why the focus this Fairtrade Fortnight is again on cocoa and on women.
“She deserves a living income” is clearly true but the reach goes further. If women are empowered, they have the opportunity to try to address the iniquities rife in the cocoa industry.
Read the full article by Tim Adams here.
But the average daily income for a cocoa farmer is just a bit more than the price of a KitKat, around 6% of the value of the final product. Branded manufacturers take roughly a 44% share and retailers 35%.
The year after the price of cocoa paid to farmers in Ivory Coast fell by a third, Barry Callebaut, the world’s biggest supplier of cocoa products, posted a 12% jump in profits to $288m.
There are still more than 2 million children working in west Africa’s cocoa fields, some using hazardous chemicals or working with machetes. Trafficking and slavery remain endemic. The Fairtrade co-operatives monitor and outlaw these practices but for most families there is still the necessity for children to help with appropriate tasks after school.
Research suggests that the most effective ways of changing that situation is through greater empowerment of women in what remain highly patriarchal communities. There are 18 steps in cocoa preparation and women do 15 of them, but few have legal title to land or much say in decision making.
Which is why the focus this Fairtrade Fortnight is again on cocoa and on women.
“She deserves a living income” is clearly true but the reach goes further. If women are empowered, they have the opportunity to try to address the iniquities rife in the cocoa industry.
Read the full article by Tim Adams here.