Antonie Fountain

The daily reality for the vast majority of cocoa farmers is (extreme) poverty. In addition to changes in governance policies, and in order to provide a business case for improved agricultural practices, companies must change their purchasing practices. This is not dependent on sector-wide collective action but can be implemented by individual companies almost directly.

Current business practices largely focus on agronomic approaches and will not suffice to reach a living income. Though… Meer weergeven

The daily reality for the vast majority of cocoa farmers is (extreme) poverty. In addition to changes in governance policies, and in order to provide a business case for improved agricultural practices, companies must change their purchasing practices. This is not dependent on sector-wide collective action but can be implemented by individual companies almost directly.

Current business practices largely focus on agronomic approaches and will not suffice to reach a living income. Though there is a role for governments in dealing with these issues, that is not an excuse for companies to not do what they can. This paper focusses on what companies can do better in their core business; the buying of cocoa. Minder weergeven

The Cocoa Barometer is a biennial publication, with the aim of creating an up-to-date, fair, and clear overview of the state of sustainability of the cocoa sector. The Barometer looks at the sector as a whole, but also couples aggregated and disaggregated company and country data with clear visualizations and fair contextualization of challenges, commitments, and accomplishments. It is published by a consortium of civil society actors from across the globe, and hosted by the VOICE network.

Transparency and accountability are essential to make sustainability efforts both credible and effective. They also provide a level playing field for all supply chain actors, enable improved market access, and help increase farmer income. However, there’s a lot of confusion about what we’re talking about – and often not so much action to be transparent, let alone accountable. Today, together with several key expert organisations in this field (EFI, UCLouvain/Trase, IIASA, the Hamburger Stiftung… Meer weergeven

Transparency and accountability are essential to make sustainability efforts both credible and effective. They also provide a level playing field for all supply chain actors, enable improved market access, and help increase farmer income. However, there’s a lot of confusion about what we’re talking about – and often not so much action to be transparent, let alone accountable. Today, together with several key expert organisations in this field (EFI, UCLouvain/Trase, IIASA, the Hamburger Stiftung für Wirtschaftsethik, and Fairfood) the Cocoa Barometer Consortium is pleased to release deep dive Consultation Paper on this key topic. Minder weergeven

Latin America is the second largest cocoa growing region in the world, and Ecuador has overtaken all but Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire in cocoa production volumes. However, Latin America cocoa is often overlooked in the broader sustainability conversations. This is why, together with a range of Latin American civil society organisations, we released the first Latin America Baseline Cocoa Barometer. This document outlines the major structures and challenges of cocoa in Latin America as a whole, and… Meer weergeven

Latin America is the second largest cocoa growing region in the world, and Ecuador has overtaken all but Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire in cocoa production volumes. However, Latin America cocoa is often overlooked in the broader sustainability conversations. This is why, together with a range of Latin American civil society organisations, we released the first Latin America Baseline Cocoa Barometer. This document outlines the major structures and challenges of cocoa in Latin America as a whole, and also dives deeper into the specifics of the major producing, processing and consuming nations there. Minder weergeven

An attempt to bring facts to the conversation around living income as well as debunking stubborn myths (and lazy excuses). The Compendium also offers a framework of how the sector should tackle farmer poverty; there is a real place for Good Agricultural Practices in achieving a living income, but this is only feasible if the enabling environment of Good Governance and Purchasing Practices are in place. In that light, we argue, the cocoa sector has been attempting to solve the issue of farmer… Meer weergeven

An attempt to bring facts to the conversation around living income as well as debunking stubborn myths (and lazy excuses). The Compendium also offers a framework of how the sector should tackle farmer poverty; there is a real place for Good Agricultural Practices in achieving a living income, but this is only feasible if the enabling environment of Good Governance and Purchasing Practices are in place. In that light, we argue, the cocoa sector has been attempting to solve the issue of farmer poverty in exactly the wrong order; after two decades of focussing on agricultural practices, perhaps we need to address the enabling environment first. Minder weergeven

A comprehensive State of Sustainability overview of the global cocoa sector.

This paper highlights shortcomings in current industry and government approaches to agroforestry in cocoa. It also suggests a way forward to ensure that cocoa agroforestry delivers on its promise of environmental sustainability while contributing to farmers’ livelihoods. Lastly, it proposes basic parameters of integrated agroforestry cocoa standards on both farm and landscape scale and sets forward recommendations for all actors in the supply chain.

A critical analysis of existing living income farm gate price calculations

When the only tool you have is a hammer, a lot of your problems start looking like nails. For a long time, in the cocoa sector, it seemed like the only tool available to achieve sustainability was certification. Over the past two decades, civil society has been one of the main promotional vehicles for the uptake of certified cocoa production and consumption. With an increase in sector efforts, in data and research, and in experience with implementation, the sector now has a wider range of… Meer weergeven

When the only tool you have is a hammer, a lot of your problems start looking like nails. For a long time, in the cocoa sector, it seemed like the only tool available to achieve sustainability was certification. Over the past two decades, civil society has been one of the main promotional vehicles for the uptake of certified cocoa production and consumption. With an increase in sector efforts, in data and research, and in experience with implementation, the sector now has a wider range of interventions at its disposal. With a slew of major developments – such as the release of the new ISO standard, Fairtrade’s revised Minimum Price and Living Income Reference Price, and the work on the new merged Rainforest/UTZ standard – it is time for Civil Society to take stock of where we are. Minder weergeven

Many efforts have been made to map parts of the challenges surrounding sustainability i in the cocoa
sector. Nonetheless, there is very little clarity in the cocoa sector about the scope of the challenges we face, the size of current efforts being undertaken, or about the effectiveness – and impact – of these efforts. To put it bluntly: we don’t really know who is doing what, we don’t really know whether what is being done is actually working, and, therefore, we cannot know how close we are… Meer weergeven

Many efforts have been made to map parts of the challenges surrounding sustainability i in the cocoa
sector. Nonetheless, there is very little clarity in the cocoa sector about the scope of the challenges we face, the size of current efforts being undertaken, or about the effectiveness – and impact – of these efforts. To put it bluntly: we don’t really know who is doing what, we don’t really know whether what is being done is actually working, and, therefore, we cannot know how close we are to achieving sustainability. For this, transparency and accountability (T&A) are essential. Minder weergeven

A first outline of what a Living Income should look like in the cocoa sector

A research in the build up of value distribution in the cocoa sector.

Over the past years, the cocoa sector has come a long way. Governments, companies and civil society have learned to engage each other in critical and constructive dialogue around diverse topics. Which approaches to reduce child labour work best, non-competitive collaboration on yield increase programmes, streamlining training curriculums and audits for certification; the sector has developed a
broad and varied vocabulary in its approaches towards a more sustainble cocoa sector. On one topic,… Meer weergeven

Over the past years, the cocoa sector has come a long way. Governments, companies and civil society have learned to engage each other in critical and constructive dialogue around diverse topics. Which approaches to reduce child labour work best, non-competitive collaboration on yield increase programmes, streamlining training curriculums and audits for certification; the sector has developed a
broad and varied vocabulary in its approaches towards a more sustainble cocoa sector. On one topic, however, we seem to have far too little conversation; farm gate prices. There is no discussion on viable options to raise farm gate prices to the level that allows farmers to escape structural poverty and attain a living income. The goal of this paper is to initiate deeper discussions around cocoa farmers’
incomes. To do this, the paper outlines the challenges and potential approaches to addressing the problem that have been put forward over the years. Minder weergeven

An overview of the state of sustainability of the Cocoa Sector.

Contributor to this alternate Macro Economic Forecast.