The Cadbury Cocoa Partnership
Cocoa farmers dry their beans in Ampenkro.
CARE’s foremost partnership is with poor people; working to improve their access to assets, skills, capital, services and markets.
Facilitating this CARE has a commitment to partnerships with big business, recognising and encouraging their impact and responsibility to these people.
CARE is pleased to be a partner in the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership (CCP). This groundbreaking ten year partnership aims to secure the economic, social and environmental future of a million cocoa farmers and their communities in Ghana, India, South East Asia and the Caribbean.
The Cadbury Cocoa Partnership
The Cocoa Partnership recognises the need to support cocoa farming if it is to modernise, improve productivity, enhance incomes and reputation sufficiently to attract and retain educated young people.
To ensure this sustainable future, Cadbury, and now Kraft Foods, has committed £45 million over ten years to improve farmer incomes, develop communities and build partnerships. (The Cocoa Partnership was launched in 2008).
CARE has been working with cocoa farmers for a long time and welcomes the opportunity to work with companies, governments, and labour organisations across the cocoa supply chain.
We hope the Cadbury’s Cocoa Partnership will have a lasting impact on the lives and livelihoods of communities.
CARE and Cadbury in Ghana
Freshly picked cocoa beans in GhanaCocoa Farmers
Ghana is the second largest exporter of cocoa in the world after Cote d’Ivoire. Cocoa is also the second largest export out of Ghana, next to gold. It plays a key role in the Ghanaian economy. However, despite the significant growth in cocoa output in recent years, many farmers and communities dependent on cocoa production live in poverty.
Cocoa farmers’ lives are hard. They often do not earn enough money to pay for essentials such as inputs for their farms, school fees, health services and transport. The price of cocoa on the world market fluctuates, yields are in decline and farmers are aging. Some are unable to cover their farming costs.
For companies like Kraft Foods, whose chocolate bars depend on this cocoa, investment in cocoa sustainability and farmer livelihoods is essential.
CARE and Cadbury in Ghana
CARE has a long history of working with farmers in Ghana, with experience in farmer education and supporting farmers to adopt new practices and technologies to increase their productivity.
Within the Cocoa Partnership, CARE analyses the relationship between the future of cocoa production and the sustainability of cocoa dependent livelihoods. We help communities to identify their own priorities, support the negotiation of these with various government authorities and help them to organise themselves better as communities, as cocoa farmers, as small scale entrepreneurs and as leaders, with the initiative to mobilize their own resources.
Cocoa Partnership Activities
The Cocoa Partnership is currently active in 100 cocoa-growing communities in Ghana. All the communities are working towards a sustainable cocoa supply chain that supports the long term needs of cocoa producers and consumers.
“We believe this new type of social and business investment model, led from the grass roots, will create conditions to enable Ghanaian cocoa farmers to increase their productivity, improve their income and improve life in cocoa farming communities through community centred development”.
“With CARE and our partners we are helping cocoa farming communities to set their vision and action plan for the future”.
CARE has supported 35 communities in Ghana to identify their needs. This includes access to water, sanitation and education as well as improved farming methods and planting new trees. The CCP has also developed a new curriculum, teaching farmers how to produce better quality cocoa. The CCP collaborates with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in Ghana.
