Chocolate Report PDF - Fair Trade Barrie

More documents

Recommendations

Info

ack into the community, into projects such as water supplies, latrines, crop improvement, gender relations and education. For Kuapa Kokoo owning a third of The Day Chocolate Company is a source of great pride, as well as status on the international market. The Day Chocolate Company has been invaluable to them. It has enabled the company to gain a better understanding of how the market works and their role within it. Ironically, most of the growers had never seen much less tasted chocolate. How Co-op shoppers will help The Co-op’s initiative will lead to a doubling of the Fairtrade chocolate market in the UK. Kuapa Kokoo currently sells about 650 tonnes of cocoa to the Fairtrade market each year. The Co-op’s requirements will increase Kuapa Kokoo’s Fairtrade sales by a massive 30 per cent. Extra income is particularly needed now. The unusually wet weather has led to an epidemic of black pod blight in West Africa, which has decimated cocoa farms: some growers have lost half their crop to the disease. All this combined with recent instabilities in the Ivory Coast and bulk buying of cocoa by a trading company means the market is currently in an extraordinary position. The normal rules of supply and demand dictate that when demand for a commodity is high, and supply is low, the price of that commodity will rise. The market is susceptible to yo-yoing price levels, making life unpredictable and even tougher for growers. It’s at a time of volatility like this that Fairtrade really helps, giving farmers the stability of a guaranteed minimum price and a long-term contract, plus the social premium paid on top. The minimum price the Co-op will pay is $1750 per tonne of cocoa. Of this, $1600 goes to Kuapa Kokoo Limited, to pay the growers for their cocoa and invest in the Fairtrade co-operative. The balance of $150 is the social premium, which goes to the Farmers’ Trust for investment in community schemes. To illustrate the scale of the benefit, we have estimated how the annual Co-op contract will make a difference to two crucial aspects of life at Kuapa Kokoo: sending children to school (paid for by growers from the basic $1600 per tonne) building new water wells (paid for by the Trust from the $150 per tonne social premium). The calculation is based on prices and exchange rates for the current trading year, with effect from March 2002. PHOTOGRAPHY: Brian Moody Sending children to primary school Primary education is state funded in Ghana, but families need to spend 15,000 cedis a year per child on school books if they are to attend. This is a difficult cost to bear. The Co-op cocoa Building new wells The Co-op will pay the Fairtrade social premium of $150 per tonne, to be used for community projects as decided democratically by the community. New water wells are an urgent priority, costing about 10 million cedis each. will bring in 2.46 billion cedis per year. So in the first year the Co-op contract would pay for 164,000 children to attend primary school, if all the money were spent this way. The Co-op social premium will bring in 240 million cedis per year, which would be enough to build 25 new water wells. Each well has the potential to benefit an entire village - village sizes vary from 250 to 3500 people. These are just illustrations - of course, it is for the farmers to decide how they want to invest the extra money. 13
Kuapa Kokoo growers say why they joined Comfort Kumeah, Mim village Comfort Kumeah is a widow with five children. She inherited a small cocoa farm from her husband. Comfort says: Before Kuapa Kokoo and Fairtrade we growers were cheated. People cheated us when they weighed the cocoa. We got little money for our cocoa. The growers’ welfare was neglected. Since I joined Kuapa Kokoo I have made good friends who will help me. Fairtrade deserves its name because it is fair. We would like more cocoa to be sold to Fairtrade because it means a better price for the producer. Ilias Mohamed, Bayerebon village Ilias Mohamed farms two and a half acres of cocoa. Weighing cocoa is a very important job and it is vital the person is trusted by the growers. Kuapa encourages villages to democratically elect this person. Ilias has just been chosen by his village for this position. Ilias says: Things are hard for cocoa growers. There has been a lot of disease and we have lost a lot of our crops. We have nothing else - just a little cassava and plantain. Before Kuapa we were not paid on time and there was no assistance. Pauline Sewa, Domeabra village Pauline Sewa is 50, a widow with five children to care for and a small cocoa farm. She had never tasted chocolate until she joined Kuapa Kokoo. Pauline says: After losing my husband I had many worries. I had to struggle to feed my children and pay for their education. Before I joined Kuapa Kokoo and Fairtrade nobody cared for us. I now have money to send my children to school and to buy clothes. I have bought a sewing machine and I want to build a home for my children. I hope for a good future. 14
Page 2 and 3: Just about everyone loves chocolate
Page 4 and 5: Contents 1 Globalisation: a dirty w
Page 6 and 7: Conditions vary depending on countr
Page 8 and 9: Co-op track record on Fairtrade The
Page 10 and 11: But the Fairtrade banana currently
Page 12 and 13: Any serious initiative against chil
Page 16 and 17: 5 Join our campaign The Co-op is pr
Page 18: Acknowledgements The Co-op would li

Chocolate Report PDF - Fair Trade Barrie

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?