December 12, 2019

By Lynda Kiernan

Cargill is investing a total of $113 million across its cocoa processing sites in Yopougon, Ivory Coast, and Tema, Ghana. 

After years of the industry trying to self-monitor against deforestation and child labor offenses, together Ivory Coast and Ghana, which are the world’s top cocoa producers accounting for two-thirds of the world’s total supply, have recently undertaken plans to regulate their cocoa industries in an effort to raise sustainability and to expand trade, reported Reuters. 

The two countries have already adopted a fixed “living income differential” of $400 per ton in July of this year which will go into effect on all cocoa sold in the 2020/21 season as a means to mitigate poverty and deforestation. Additionally, they are planning on further restructuring the certification schemes required by some of the world’s top chocolate companies such as Nestle, Barry Callebaut, Mars, and Mondelez.

Broken down, $100 million of Cargill’s total investment will be allocated to increasing production capacity at Yopougon by 50 percent, creating 85 full-time jobs. The remaining $13 million will be used to increase capacity at Tema by 20 percent.

At the same time, Cargill also has committed to investing another $12.3 million – $7.7 million in Ivory Coast, and $3.4 million in Ghana – over the coming three years to strengthen its sustainability and supply chain traceability programs in the two countries. 

These sustainability and supply chain initiatives are part of Cargill Cocoa Promise, the company’s corporate commitment to improving the lives of farmers and creating more resilient cocoa farming communities. 

“We aim to shift a greater share of our global grinding activities to the countries of origin, so we can support the establishment of a broader, local agri-food industry,” said Lionel Soulard, managing director, Cargill West Africa. “Working directly with both governments and other key stakeholders, we are committed to economic growth, building sustainable local businesses and diversifying sources of income for cocoa farming communities.”

In Ivory Coast these investments will accomplish a range of goals including:

~ Expand the Child Labor Monitoring and Remediation System with the International Cocoa Initiative, bringing the total number of cooperatives and farmers in the country from 53 cooperatives and 46,800 farmers, to 130 cooperatives and 120,000 farmers by 2022.

~ Collaborate with CARE to set-up Community Development Committees and develop Community Action Plans in 23 Ivorian communities to broaden financial inclusion and enhance entrepreneurial skills for women in cocoa farming households.

~ Work with Save the Children to launch a new program to protect youth at risk for child labor. (In 2018, there were about 2.1 million children across West Africa working in the cocoa industry – slightly more than numbers reported five years ago, according to the report Cocoa Barometer). 

~ Expand Cargill’s partnership with the IFC to launch Coop Academy 2.0 – a program to provide management, operational, and digital training for cooperative leaders and female entrepreneurs in 140 partner cooperatives.

~ Collaborate with new partner Empow’Her to strengthen cooperative support to women’s groups.

~ The Construction of six new schools which upon completion will be relinquished to the Ministry of Education.

Cargill also has committed $1.2 million in Ivory Coast to implement scalable mapping and monitoring technology solutions including GPS polygon mapping and a digital Cooperative Management System (CMS) to advance traceability of the supply chain by 2020.

Data from the GPS polygon mapping and electronic bean tracking solutions will inform how Cargill designs and deploys its sustainability programs, which in turn will deliver on customer demand for more traceability and sustainability in food chains. And the CMS system will ensure that farmers and their organizations are empowered to manage their operations, and will receive timely payments for their crops. 

In Ghana, Cargill’s investment will :

~ Implement the Child Labor Monitoring and Remediation System (CLMRS) with the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) to include 8,000 farmers and their families in 56 communities by September 2020.

~ Collaborate with CARE in 156 cocoa growing communities to strengthen governance and improve dietary diversity through homestead gardens, nutrition education programming, and cooking demonstrations.

~ Construct six new schools and school infrastructure in key Ghanian communities.

“Building on the success of the ‘Good taste of Ghana’ campaign when we started producing cocoa powders in the country in 2008 and selling them worldwide to our customers, the expansion of Tema is needed to meet customer demand for high value cocoa powders,” said Aedo van der Weij, managing director of Cargill’s cocoa and chocolate business in Ghana.

– Lynda Kiernan is Editor with GAI Media and daily contributor to the GAI News and Agtech Intel platforms. If you would like to submit a contribution for consideration, please contact Ms. Kiernan at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com.